


I Believe in You ♥

by emmarumbelle



Category: Uta no Prince-sama
Genre: F/M, Gen, OtoHaru
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-03
Updated: 2014-02-09
Packaged: 2017-12-22 08:30:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 55,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/911079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmarumbelle/pseuds/emmarumbelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Does Haruka have feelings for Otoya? Does he? How could they possibly be together when even falling in love is forbidden? When troubles arise: will they be there for each other? How do the other members of Starish handle this?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So… i never wrote a fic before so you'll have to forgive its terribleness… Ummm in case you were wondering: yes, this is an OtoHaru fic XD It's a rare one.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Uta no Prince-sama or any of its characters.

The day was breezy to say the least, Haruka was wearing her warmest clothes but still couldn't get over the cold; her nose was red and she couldn't feel her fingers as she walked through the snowy streets on her way back home (which was the house she shared with Starish and the senpais) from shopping. She tried to get her mind away from the bad weather by making up on her mind some new melodies for her favourite idols when she realized that she was lost.

"Not again!" said Haruka as she flailed her arms around. ' _Okay Haruka, calm down… I have get back home before I freeze to death… now, where could I find an official…?_ ' she thought as she looked at the four different paths she could walk to. But then she got an idea: ' _I could just walk back to the store to get warm and ask for directions!_ '

She was already walking in one direction when she realized ' _wait… I'm lost, I don't know where I came from_ ' and with that thought she yelled "Whyyyy?!"

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

__

_**Meanwhile at the Starish dorm ~** _

 

The clock marked ten a.m. as Otoya switched through the channels finding nothing worth watching. Just as he was about to give up and turn the TV off someone approached him.

"Is this seat taken?" asked Cecil pointing to the space on the couch next to the redhead.

"No, there's nobody else here" Otoya replied thinking ' _isn't it obvious? There's nobody else in the whole place…_ ' Cecil sat next to him and proceeded to stare.

"… Do you want something?" asked Otoya nervously. ' _Wow, this guy is… really something isn't he?_ ' he thought.

"… It's just… no, forget about it"

"It does look like something. Come on, you can tell me anything, go ahead." said Otoya encouragingly.

"…"

"…Ok, I know we haven't been treating you the best way possible but I promise you I don't bite, if you need to take something off your chest you can tell me"

"I… alright… here goes nothing" said Cecil as he sighed loudly. "Your fa-" he started saying, but was interrupted by a really loud sound in the background.

"What was that?!" exclaimed Otoya. Before he could do anything else, Ringo came running to the room.

"Are you kids okay?" he asked worriedly.

"Yes" they replied in unison.

"Oh, thank God. You are not gonna believe what happened"

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

' _Is that…? No, it can't be… but what if… oh my God it is!_ ' Haruka thought as she approached a uniformed man. "Excuse me, sir?"

"Yes?"

"Are you a police officer?"

"Yes young lady, are you lost?"

"Yes… how did you know?"

"Well, for starters you've been walking the same street back and forward for about ten minutes…"

"Oh… could you help me?" He nodded in response.

"Okay, could you tell me which way is the Saotome Academy's idol dorms?"

"I'm sorry, the what?"

The conversation kept going and going until the man finally understood the situation and using a map Haruka had with herself pointed the way she had to go. "Thank you so much for your help!" she said.

"No problem, just try to be more careful next time"

"Yes sir. Goodbye!" she said as she waved and headed home.

' _I can't believe how clumsy I am, I better pay attention this time…_ '

 

**_40 minutes later ~_ **

 

"Everyone, I'm home!" Haruka exclaimed as she closed the door behind her. She heard footsteps so she turned around to find a certain redhead standing in front of her.

"Oh Haruka, I was starting to worry, what took you so long? Do you want some tea? cookies? a book? a hug? Something?" he said talking faster and louder as he went on.

"Um… I'm alright…? What happened?" she asked puzzled.

"Why do you think something happened? Everything's fine. No, morethanfinefantastic" he said quickly, so much so that the last four words became a blurry combination.

"I don't think so…" she said as she started walking to her room but was quickly blocked by Otoya. "Can you let me through?"

"Let you through what? Oh, you want to go somewhere inside?"

"Yes, I want to go to my room." She said as she took a deep breath and then continued "so please, let me go"

"I'm afraid I can't help you with that"

"What? Why? Ittoki-kun, what happened?" she asked worried now.

"Um… ok, I'll tell you but promise you won't get mad. I mean, I had nothing to do with it"

"Oh, okay. I promise. Now: talk." She said a bit angry. He took a deep breath and looked her in the eyes before opening his mouth.

"Your room kind of blew up"

"WHAT?!" she practically screamed. "What do you mean it kind of blew up?! Is everyone ok?!"

"Yes yes, don't worry. The only injured one was your room…" he said and then blushed and thought ' _injured? Rooms don't get injured you stupid Otoya_ '

Otoya walked with Haruka to the scene of the crime while looking around nervously. "Are you sure you want to see this? I mean, all your things are either burnt or completely turned to ashes now…" she looked at him but before she could answer she smelled of something burned and realized they had arrived.

The door looked pretty normal from the outside like if nothing had happened. Haruka took a deep breath, looked at Otoya in the eye and nodded. He turned the doorknob and pushed the door slowly as they both stepped forward. The curtains were covering the windows so it was hard to see anything inside. When both of them got in Otoya pressed the light switch and everything lit up.

"SURPRISE!" every member of Starish and Ringo exclaimed.

It took Haruka a moment to get over the shock but when she did she said: "Oh my God you guys! This is so nice!" She said happily, then paused and continued "But today's not my birthday…"

Ringo walked toward her and explained "We know honey, but it was today a year ago that you all got together in Starish and I had the most brilliant idea that could not be wasted"

"Hey hey, it was everyone's idea!" said Syo angrily.

"Yeah yeah, sure" replied Ringo.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YEAH YEAH SURE, IT WAS" yelled Syo.

Before Ringo could reply Otoya said: "Okay guys, calm down, it doesn't matter, what matters now is Nanami, and we are going to give her the best day of her life, right?" he finished looking at Syo and Ringo. They nodded making Otoya smile.

"WHO WANTS SOME CAKE?!" yelled Natsuki. "I wanted to make it but I couldn't find the ingredients and we had to buy it… I hope you don't mind Haru-chan." Everyone (except for Natsuki and Haruka) sighed in relief at the statement.

"No, it's ok, maybe next time?" Natsuki nodded enthusiastically at that and gestured for Haruka to get closer to the cake, it had 8 candles. "Why eight? You guys are seven."

"We may be seven but you are a member too you silly" replied Otoya sweetly. This made Haruka blush and look at the floor.

"Thank you all" she said as she smiled brightly making everyone blush. "Okay, enough of this, let's blow the candles shall we Little Lamb?" said Ren finally breaking the ice and making everyone focus again on the cake as he took a lighter from his pocket and proceeded to light up every candle.

Before even getting close enough to the cake, Haruka said: "As nice as this is, you said it yourselves; we are all in this together so we should all blow the candles at the same time" everyone nodded in agreement and approached the cake blowing all the candles and clapping afterwards.

The evening went on with various party games including a karaoke machine (which Haruka was forced to sing to), guessing the song that was playing, imitating each other, twister and eating cake 'till you want to puke.

At one point of the party Tomochika arrived with costumes and plenty more games to keep the party going on forever but as it was getting late Ringo (as he left) asked them to keep it low or end it.

They started cleaning and at about nine p.m. Syo, Natsuki and Tokiya left claiming they had to get up at five the next day. Ren wanted to stay longer but Masato told him he was either going then or not entering the room at all so they both left too leaving only Haruka, Tomochika and Otoya in the room.

"Okay, I guess I should go too, goodnight Haruka" Otoya said and a second later he blushed furiously as he realized he just called her by her first name. What he didn't realize as he looked to the ground was Haruka blushing just as much as he. She replied in a very low voice "You too Ittoki-kun" but loud enough for him to hear. Hearing that, he left the room.

Tomochika started grinning as she stared at Haruka and said "Huh, I didn't know you liked Otoya-kun like that"

"Wha-what d-do you mean Tomo-chan?" Haruka replied still blushing and stuttering.

"Come on, isn't it obvious?" she answered mischievously. Haruka ignored her and just said "Goodnight Tomo-chan!" and ran out of the room.

' _She's stubborn isn't she?_ ' Tomochika thought as she looked at her friend's figure disappear. ' _This may not be the best thing to happen though… after all, falling in love (and because of it also dating) is forbidden… I just hope she doesn't get hurt…_ ' then she grabbed her purse and started walking towards the exit; a car was waiting for her outside to take her back to her idol residence.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Uta no Prince-sama or any of its characters.

Haruka couldn’t sleep, she kept rolling around in her bed thinking about what Tomochika said and _‘why did my room smelled like something burnt if it didn’t explode?’_

Thinking it might help her get some rest she put on a coat and went downstairs to take a walk outside until she got tired. What caught her by surprise was _how_ cold it was outside. When she opened the door she felt as if every bit of heat in her body was sucked out. Because of this, she quickly closed back the door and went to the kitchen to make some tea. She was getting quite relaxed as she waited for the water to boil so she thought _‘maybe I_ can _sleep tonight after all’_ while she closed her eyes and waited quietly.

Suddenly someone grabbed her from behind covering her mouth. Before she could react, her attacker said “Haruka, it’s me”. She recognized that voice, it was Cecil. She pulled away from him, turned around and in a whisper asked him “What are you doing?” He stared at her for a couple of minutes before whispering back “I needed to see you… I love you” That threw Haruka off (like it always happened when Cecil confessed) making her slightly trip backwards. He thought she was actually falling so he tightly embraced her as afraid that if he let go she would break.

It was this scene that greeted Otoya as he came to the kitchen to eat his after-midnight snack of the day.

After the initial shock he just said “Ha-Haruka?!” Upon hearing that, Cecil let go allowing her to turn around and see the redhead standing there.

“I- we-, Ittoki-kun, this isn’t what it looks like” she said a bit too desperately making Cecil look at her with curious eyes.

Otoya just said in a cold voice “what does it look like? You don’t really need to explain anything to me.” Then he looked at Cecil as he continued “I just came to eat something but now I realize that I’m not that hungry so… Goodnight guys.”

Before Haruka could stop Otoya from leaving, Cecil asked in a mischievous tone “Jealous?” This made the redhead stop in his tracks as he turned around speechless to face Cecil one more time. They stayed staring at each other in silence for a while until the water started boiling making its particular screeching sound and snapping them out of their thoughts.

Afterwards as Haruka was pouring the boiled water in her teacup she decided that: awkward or not, she should be polite and proceeded to ask “Does anyone want some tea?” as she took a quick look at both of the boys. In that moment, Otoya had a quick thought ‘ _if I leave now, Cecil will just continue to flirt with her. I can’t let him take her from me… Wait, whoa take her from me? What am I thinking? She’s not mine… Then, why-, oh, I know: I don’t want to leave them alone because if he keeps flirting with her and they start dating they could get expelled! Yes, let’s go with that’_ And decided to accept Haruka’s invitation “I wouldn’t mind some tea if it’s not a problem” She smiled at that and poured him some water too.

They were both sitting at the table together drinking tea and smiling at each other when Cecil asked in a husky voice “Haruka, what is your favourite type of tea?”

After waiting for an answer that wasn’t coming he coughed to get their attention making Haruka blush furiously and say “Oh, no. I’m so sorry Cecil-san, since you didn’t reply before I thought you didn’t want any tea.”

“No, I didn’t. The thing is that I just asked you a question and you didn’t answer”

“I’m really sorry Cecil-san, but I wasn’t really paying attention. Would you mind repeating your question?” she said as she looked down embarrassed.

“Of course I don’t, I asked you-” He was cut off by Otoya suddenly gasping loudly.

“Look Haruka! There’s a butterfly on your teacup!” the redhead said.

“Oh wow, it’s so pretty! But, how did it get in here?” she said as she turned towards Otoya once again.

“Maybe there’s a window open? Or maybe it got in earlier?” he replied.

On the background Cecil was grabbing his hair whispering obscenities but then decided to take the highroad and said “Hey guys, I was just talking-” but was again cut off by Otoya “Oh yeah, I tell you Haruka’s favourite tea flavor: it’s apple tea. Right?”

“Yes! You know me well” she said as she smiled brightly making Otoya blush.

Cecil lost his patience by then so he bluntly said “Thanks, but I think Haruka can speak for herself”

“But it’s true Cecil-san” she said confused.

Before Cecil could reply, Otoya looked at Haruka and said: “No, he’s right. You are a smart, strong and independent woman and you don’t need anyone to speak for you”

“Th-thank you Ittoki-kun, that’s really nice of you” she said blushing a deep shade of red, darker than his hair.

“Why don’t you call me Otoya? I already call you Haruka, it’s only fair” he said smiling.

“Oh, I’m so sorry Itto- Otoya-kun” she said grimacing.

At this point, Cecil decided to use his last card before completely giving up and going back to bed: pity.

“So… it seems I’m not wanted here… so… I’ll just go to bed, goodnight Haruka… Otoya”

“Cecil-san…” said Haruka sadly.

“No, it’s ok. We’ll continue this conversation tomorrow” and with that he walked out of the room.

Both redheads stared at the ground then (partly because they felt embarrassed and also to hide their blushing faces from each other).

After some awkward silence Haruka finally said “So… Um… Otoya-kun… can I ask you a question?”

“Yes, of course. What is it Haruka-chan?” he asked curiously.

“Um… well… remember when you said you wanted me to know everything about you?” he nodded at that and gestured for her to continue “Well, you told me you didn’t know who your biological father is… and I think I may actually know… I mean, I won’t tell you if you don’t want to… do you?”

He looked shocked for a moment but when he finally reacted, answered “I… before I answer that I need to know: do I already know him?” she nodded “Okay, then don’t tell me… the curiosity might kill me but if he knows I’m his son and he hasn’t told me yet it must be for a reason… and even if there isn’t one, I don’t want to get mad at you for being the messenger…”

“I understand. I just… I thought it should be your decision and not mine whether you knew or not” she said holding his hand.

“Thank you, that’s really nice of you” he said squeezing her hand tightly. In that moment her eyes went from their intertwined hands to his ruby eyes. They stayed like that for a while as if time wasn’t passing by and slowly started to lean closer to each other until their faces where so close they could feel the other person’s breath.

 ‘ _I shouldn’t do this. We’ll get expelled… But I want it so much! I can’t stop’_ thought Haruka. She wanted to say it out loud, to stop in some way but it was as if her body had a mind of its own.

Otoya on the other hand had so many conflicting thoughts (like ‘ _does she like me in that way?’, ‘Cecil and the other guys will kill me’, ‘I don’t want her to be expelled’, ‘I want to still be an idol’, ‘her lips look so soft’, ‘her breath is so sweet’, ‘I think my heart is trying to fly out of my chest’)_ that he just decided to ignore all logic and let whatever was supposed to happen, happen. He decided to close the space between their lips and right when they were about to touch a really loud alarm sounded making them break apart. Out of nowhere came Reiji who yelled “FALLING IN LOVE IS FORBIDDEN! DO YOU WANT TO GET EXPELLED?!”

“Reiji-san! Do you know what time it is? You are going to wake up everyone with that alarm!” said Otoya trying to change the conversation topic as he blushed.

“If anyone wakes up I’ll tell them it’s your fault, both of you. I thought you two knew better.” Reiji said in a disappointed tone.

“I’m so sorry Reiji-san!” said Haruka as she bowed.

“It’s okay. Thank God I was here to stop this tragedy” said Reiji as he sighed.

“About that: why are you here? And how did you know we were here?” Otoya asked angrily.

“You should be thanking me, that right there could have been the end of both of your careers” Reiji said looking at Otoya, he saw the determined look the boy had and continued “Okay… I went to the bathroom and noticed that you weren’t in your bed so my intense deductive skills told me I may find you here… I didn’t expect to see you with Haruka-chan though”

“So… Are you and the rest of the senpais going to keep watching over us as if we were little children?” asked Otoya.

“I’m afraid so. It seems to be the only way to prevent you guys from breaking THE ONLY RULE THAT EXISTS” replied Reiji. “Now: you two go back to sleep before I decide to give you a punishment for almost breaking the rules”

Otoya was accepting defeat by then. He was truly tired and he knew it wasn’t the senpai’s fault that he couldn’t be with Haruka. “Okay” he said, he got up and was already leaving when she grabbed his arm.

Haruka looked at Otoya for a moment and then looked straight at Reiji and said “Could we do the dishes first? It wouldn’t be fair for someone that didn’t eat anything to clean them”.

Reiji nodded and said “Okay, but if you take more than an hour I’ll come back to personally escort you to your rooms” and with that he walked away.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Uta no prince-sama or any of its characters, i just wrote this story.
> 
> Oh oh, and before i forget: In this i mention twerking... so if you don't know what it is you can look it up... btw you will regret that XD.

After Reiji left, both redheads took their dirty teacups and slowly walked together to the kitchen in silence. The moment they got to the sink they both said “I…” at the same time. Otoya gestured for her to talk first and she continued “I… just… Before Reiji-san interrupted us we were…” she stopped there blushing and grabbed a sponge to clean. After a couple of minutes he realized she wasn’t going to continue so he said “We were… about to kiss…” she looked up at him and seeing her expression he continued nervously “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to… I mean, it was nothing”.

When he finished talking Haruka felt a pang of pain as if she had been stabbed straight in the chest _‘It was nothing? I thought it was something… Oh no, I want to cry… no’_ she thought. And doing her best attempt to finish the conversation without making him uncomfortable she said “You are right… Otoya-kun… It was nothing”. She was pretty confident that she hadn’t shown any emotion with that but when she turned off the water she realized that it still seemed to be leaking to the dishes. She was crying, and she thought it was weird Otoya didn’t notice that since he was drying the teacups next to her.

Meanwhile he was trying to hold his emotions the best he could (he wasn’t very good at that) so he tried not to look at her, but it was pretty hard given that she was handing him the dishes he needed to dry. At that moment she gave him the last teacup but because he wasn’t looking, it fell from her hand and crashed on the floor. Fortunately the cup didn’t break, it was just chipped but as they both bent down to grab it, Haruka broke down.  

“It’s my entire fault!” she said sobbing “I thought…” she got to the point where her cries wouldn’t allow her to make an understandable sentence then, worrying her friend.

“Haruka, it’s okay. It’s just chipped and anyways it’s just a teacup” he tried to comfort her after putting the cup in the sink again. Seeing as she wouldn’t stop crying he decided it was best if he just hugged her as he whispered in her ear “everything’s okay”. She hugged him back tightly and when her sobs subsided a little she whispered back “No… it’s no-not… I’m in love with you”. Hearing that, he pulled away looking at her now puffy eyes and drying her face with his hands “What did you just said?” he asked shocked, she couldn’t possibly had said what he thought he heard.

She took a deep breath and repeated: “I’m in love with you”

He took a moment to process the information but when he could think clearly again, he asked softly “Is that why you’re crying? You think I don’t love you?”

“No… I know you love me, but I also know that you are not _in_ love with me…” she answered sadly.

“Well… you are wrong then, because from the moment I met you I have only been falling deeper and deeper in love with you. Let me say this without any space for misunderstanding: I’m in love with you Nanami Haruka-chan” he told her sweetly as they both finally close the space between each other and kissed passionately, clinging to each other tightly as if afraid the other would disappear if they let go.

They kissed until they had to break apart to breathe and even then, they didn’t let go of each other. Their faces were very close and Otoya could still taste the sweet taste of her lips in his but he wanted another try so he leaned in again and this time Haruka pulled away at the last second and said breathlessly “Reiji-san…”. This snapped Otoya back into reality so he checked his watch and noticed they had been there for almost an hour now. Just as he was about to say that he didn’t want to leave her side and that it was unfair Shining didn’t let them date he realized something “Isn’t the principal watching us? He should’ve stopped us like he always does… why didn’t he?”

Haruka bit her lower lip and looked away at that.

“What? Is there something I don’t know?” he asked curiously.

“I… you said you didn’t want to know.” She replied.

“What?” she remained silent at his question so he decided to ask again but suddenly he realized “Oh… So, the principal knows my father?”

“Yes” she said as she thought ‘ _Sure, let’s go with that_ ’.

“I… We should go talk to him. I don’t want to just clandestinely kiss you under the sink… I want to be _with you_ , always.”

“Are you sure?” he looked sadly at her at that “I mean: it’s not that I don’t want to be with you, it’s just that it’s a bit too risky… And anyways, we need to leave now before Reiji comes back”

“Yes, I’m quite sure, besides: we may never find a better moment than now… so, why don’t we?”

She checked her watch and said “Maybe he’s sleeping? It’s almost 4 a.m. now.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure he’s not a normal human and he usually exercises at this time… don’t ask me how I know… I don’t really want to think about that” he said as he shivered “He must be at his office”.

“Okay… let’s go”

And with that they walked hand in hand towards Shining’s office in silence. When they were in front of the door Otoya looked at Haruka expecting her approval. When she looked back and nodded he knocked on the door. Not too long after that, an over the top voice answered from inside “It’s open, come in!” This time she opened the door. The sight that welcomed them was pretty unpleasant. Inside the office was Shining in some sort of exercise attire twerking all over the room. It was actually pretty disturbing.

After they got in, Otoya closed the door behind them and Shining finally stopped his horrendous exercise. “Miss Nanami, Mister Ittoki: what brings you two here?”

The ruby eyed boy straightforwardly answered “I think you know why we came”

“Why so bitter Mister Ittoki? I’ve been exercising for a while now… So, if you’re implying that I should know because I’ve been watching you, that is wrong” he answered as he drank a bottle of water.

“Oh… then… We need to ask you something Saotome-sama” said Haruka.

“Go ahead, shoot” Haruka squeezed Otoya’s hand for him to ask the question.

“We… we wanted to ask if we could date” he asked.

“Oh. Kids, I’m afraid that’s against the rules.”

“Yes, we know. But we… we are in love… I’ll do anything, just let me be with her… please” begged Otoya with tears in his eyes.

“Please Saotome-san!” begged Haruka as she bowed.

Shining thought about it for a moment ‘ _If I say no they’ll date anyways… teenagers… But if I say yes I can actually give them certain conditions… yes! Good idea Mitsuo’_. “Okay kids, you can date” they hugged each other happily then “BUT…” he said.

‘ _Oh no… “Buts” are never good’_ thought Haruka.

“But… you will have to keep it a secret from the fans and you –he pointed at Haruka- will have to come up with another hit by the end of the month. If you can’t do either of these you’ll have to pretend that nothing happened and break up” he said as they nodded “Good, now go. It’s four a.m. and you should get some rest”

They happily walked out of the office holding hands as Otoya escorted Haruka to her room. When they got to the door she decided it was good as any other time to ask “Why don’t you sleep with me?” at this he blushed so much steam came out of his ears.

“Ha-Ha-Haruka I-I…” he could barely talk with his stuttering so Haruka tried to help him.

“I’ll take that as a yes. Come on, Ichinose-san wakes up really early (right about now) and I don’t want him snatching you away from me” and with that she grabbed his arm and led him inside her room closing the door behind them.

“Ha-Haruka do-don’t you think this is a bit to-too fast? I me-mean, we just started da-dating”.

“Why are you blushing so much Otoya-kun? The bed is big enough to fit the both of us.” She said obnoxiously.

“Haruka-chan! Since when are you so forward?!” he exclaimed blushing.

She went up to her bed and grabbed her pajama “What do you mean?” she said. And with that she walked to her private bathroom to change, leaving Otoya confused to say the least.

After a couple of minutes she came out of the bathroom wearing her winter pajamas which were long sleeved and with comfy pants (showing as little skin as possible). That was the moment when realization came to Otoya ‘ _I’m a pervert! She meant sleeping as in just that, literally sleeping and I took it the wrong way!’_ he was blushing in embarrassment now.

“So, will you join me now? I know you don’t have your pajamas but it’s not as if we’ll sleep that long… I changed ‘cuz those where Tomo-chan’s clothes, she borrowed me some since I like those so much and we have the same size” she said as she sat on the bed and patted the spot next to her.

“Oh, yes” He sat next to her. Haruka gestured for him to get on one side of the bed so they could cuddle and he happily obliged. He put the covers over them and just like that, they spazzed out.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... If you are not only in the Utapri fandom but also in the Once Upon a Time fandom, you might have found a scene from the last chapter that was pretty similar to a Rumbelle one :P Yes, i have a ton of OTPs but i'm not sure i made any other reference...
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Uta no prince-sama or any of its characters.

**_8 a.m. (4 hours later)_ **

Every day the members of Starish would gather in the living room at eight in the morning to discuss their schedules and take their breakfast. So it was a surprise when they noticed the absence of a certain couple of redheads.

"Haru-chan must've been tired after writing so much. It's okay if she's sleeps through our meeting today" said Natsuki.

"Yes, but what about Otoya? Where is him?" asked Syo.

"Now that you mention it, he wasn't in his bed earlier so I thought he had already came here…" said Tokiya.

"It doesn't seem like it" said Masato.

"Yes, we can see that" replied Ren.

A really dark aura surrounded Cecil. He was unusually quiet and mopy about the whole thing. This got the boys suspicious.

"What about you Cecil? What do you know about Otoya?" asked Syo snapping the boy back to reality.

"Eh? Me? What would I know?" replied Cecil nervously.

"We don't know; that's why we're asking" Ren told him.

"Oh… I…" Cecil murmured unintelligible words under his breath and had a crazed look on his face as he did which made Ren take it as a challenge to get the information out of the foreign boy. He observed him for a moment and noticed the bags under his eyes which gave him a bit of a clue to start his 'investigation'.

"Huh… say Cecil: where were you last night?" Ren suddenly asked.

"Wh-What?! Where would I be?! I was sleeping!" Cecil replied nervously.

"Oh, really? Then why do you look like you haven't slept in ages?" said Ren. Then he continued "Guys, help me out here: poor little Ceshii is holding out on us and thinks he can't get away with it".

"Are you okay?" asked Natsuki in a worried tone.

"I… no, I'm not" he answered sadly.

"Whaat? Why? Do you need a hug? I'm going to give it to you anyways" said Natsuki hugging the emerald eyed boy.

"Let… go…" said Cecil gasping for air.

"Oh, sorry"

"Now tell us what you know about Otoya" said Syo.

Cecil sighed and then said "Okay… it's not much but yesterday I couldn't sleep and I went to get a drink to the kitchen and-" he was cut by Ren.

"Yes yes, very interesting: tell us about Otoya"

"I was just getting there!" Ren smirked and gestured for Cecil to continue "Okay, the thing is that when I went to the kitchen Haruka was there, she was making herself some tea and we were… talking when Otoya came in. Long story short (because apparently you are too impatient to hear the whole thing) I was tired and I went to bed and they stayed together. Alone. God knows what they did" he finished.

"Do you think they…?" asked Masato.

"No, it's against the rules. Besides, Haruka doesn't like him that way. Does she?" said Tokiya.

"There's only one way to find out" said Syo mysteriously.

"… And that is?" asked Natsuki.

"I'm pretty sure he means we should go check on her room" Ren replied.

"What? But we can't go to the girl's dorm without permission!" said Natsuki.

"Are you really that naïve?" said Ren "The senpais are out this morning and the principal is nowhere to be seen, we can go".

"… But… ok, but we should knock first; she may be sleeping. If she doesn't answer, we don't bother her anymore" replied Natsuki.

"Yeah, sure" lied Ren.

They got up and walked their way to Haruka's room. Everyone was pretty silent all the way there and as they got to the door their doubts grew.

"I should knock" said Tokiya seeing as no one was as close as him to it. They all nodded and he proceeded to knock twice. Nobody replied to the knocks so after a moment they started to walk away when Ren stopped them.

"Where are you going? We are not giving up now" he said.

"What? But you said-" Natsuki was interrupted by Ren chuckling.

"I lied. Do you really think I was telling the truth? Come on, you know me better than that" Ren said.

"… I guess… but I don't think we should bother her anymore. If she couldn't sleep last night maybe she needs to sleep this morning…" replied Natsuki.

"Don't worry, the door is open. We'll walk in and if we see her alone sleeping we'll slowly walk away" Ren said.

"But what if she's not alone sleeping?" asked Syo.

"I guess we'll have to see" Ren replied.

He slowly opened the door and silently walked in gesturing for everyone else to stay outside. He spotted the bed and walked towards it very carefully. When he got next to it he breathed out (without actually realizing he had been holding his breath) relieved: Haruka was alone. He calmly went back outside and closed the door behind him.

"So?" said Cecil.

"She was alone". Everyone sighed in relief and then made their way back to the living room. But Ren still had a strange feeling in his gut that told him that something was off. Seeing his expression, Masato stayed with him.

When the rest of the guys were out of sight Masato asked "What is it?"

Ren looked at him and said "Something's not right".

"What do you mean?"

"I… I don't know. I have a hunch that tells me that there's something weird here".

"A hunch? I think you have been watching way too many detective shows" said Masato as he smirked.

"No, I'm serious. If Otoya is not here after we have a witness seeing him last with Haruka: where is him?"

"See, a witness. You are just too into those shows. But you are right in something: it's weird we haven't heard a sound from Otoya in all day. He's usually pretty noisy and energetic. Even if he didn't sleep last night" replied Masato. Ren just stared at him as he thought through the possibilities. "Why don't we go get changed now, we have a photo shoot in an hour and I don't want to be late. This mystery will still be here after we come back" finished Masato.

"Okay, but before we do we should talk to the principal about this. Maybe Otoya is in trouble and even though we are a big boy band we can't afford losing one member now" said Ren.

"Jinguji Ren, are you worried about someone other than yourself?" asked a smiling Masato.

"Shut up"

**~o~h~~o~h~~o~h~~o~h~~o~h~~o~h~~o~h~~o~h~~o~h~**

__

_**Meanwhile in Haruka's room ~** _

 

They had been sleeping soundly when Otoya heard a noise coming from outside the room that woke him up. When said noises knocked on the door he woke up Haruka and whispered "Someone's here, I'll go hide. Pretend you're sleeping and tell me when they're gone" confused Haruka just went back to sleep when he slowly closed the door to her bathroom just as Ren opened the door to her room. After the boy walked back outside she sighed in relief, her heart was nearly beating out of her chest when he got next to her bed. She quickly got out of her bed and put her ear to the door to listen if they were still out there. She heard them say they were leaving and was about to tell Otoya to come out of hiding when she heard Masato's voice. After she heard the two friends walking away (their footsteps were quite loud) she waited a couple of minutes and called her boyfriend.

"Otoya-kun! You can come out now!" said Haruka.

"Shhh… Are you sure?" he asked in a low voice.

"Yes, Jinguji-san and Hijirikawa-san just walked off to see Saotome-sama"

Otoya opened the door of the bathroom and walked back to Haruka's bed. He sighed in relief and said "That was close"

"Yes, it really was" said Haruka sitting back on her bed.

"I don't know if we can tell them or not yet… the fans can't know but the principal didn't say anything about our friends".

"I know, but it's best if we play safe until we talk to the principal" she said grimacing. He nodded and held her hand making her look at him.

"Good morning" she said softly, smiling.

He smiled back at her and then he leaned in and kissed her lips sweetly. Shortly after, she kissed back and after a moment he pulled away and said "Good morning". This made her giggle with delight and since she wanted more, she kissed him putting her hands at the sides of his face as if to stop him from pulling away this time. He kissed back and held her by the hips getting her closer to his body. Feeling herself closer she moved one of her hands to his hair and her other one down to his chest. At that point they slightly pulled away and rested in each other's foreheads trying to catch their breaths. When she started breathing normally again Haruka whispered "I love you Otoya-kun". He gave her a quick peck on the lips and replied "I love you too Haruka-chan". They were about to kiss again when Haruka's cellphone started ringing. She snorted angrily and checked the caller id. It was an unknown number but she picked up anyways.

"Hello?" she said carefully.

"Haruka! How are you girl?" replied a female familiar voice from the other side.

"Tomo-chan?"

"Yes! Who else would I be?"

"Oh no… it's just that I have your number in my phone but it still popped out as 'unknown caller'"

"Ah… yes, I got a new phone. You should save this number 'cuz I won't use the other one anymore"

"Um… Okay…"

"Heh, sorry this call isn't going anywhere. I was just calling to ask if you wanted to come to my concert next week. And spoiler alert: you can't say no"

"Of course I'll go!" she looked at the redhead next to her and asked "But… can I bring someone?"

"Sure! But I just have space for two people so just bring one someone" she said laughing.

"No problem. You'll text me later the time and place?"

"Of course! Ok, gotta go, bye!" she hanged up.

Haruka put her phone back at her nightstand and took a deep breath.

"Is everything ok?" asked Otoya.

"Oh, yes… It's just… Tomo-chan is having a concert next week and I was wondering if you could come with me… Can you?" she replied nervously.

"Um… I should check my schedule but I'll let you know" he said jokingly. Haruka didn't get the joke so she looked sadly to the floor before replying anything.

"Haruka, honey: I'm joking" she looked up at him with a bright look on her face and suddenly hit him in the arm "Ouch, what was that for?"

"What do you think it was for? I really thought you were serious" she replied angrily.

"I would never put you after my work, ever. Besides, I have the next week off" he said sweetly "I'm sorry for joking about it, I didn't mean to hurt you"

"No, it's okay. I overreacted, it wouldn't have been that big of a deal if you actually had to work, and it was in such a short notice and all" Haruka replied understandingly.

They stayed in silence for a moment looking around the room, thinking. The longer they didn't say anything, the more awkward the silence became. Otoya realized he had to work after lunch but the thick atmosphere in the room kept him silent. Haruka on the other hand, had saved the whole day to write more songs in the quest to write a new hit but she didn't want to waste her free time with Otoya just staring at the floor in awkward silence so she decided to be the one to talk first.

"Otoya-kun…"

"Eh? Yes?" he looked up at her.

"I was just wondering if you wanted to… have breakfast with me?" she asked shyly.

"Oh. Yes, of course" then he realized something "Um… But maybe we should wait for the rest of the guys to leave… I mean, they will see me coming from your room and I'm wearing the same clothes from yesterday"

Before she was able to reply she yawned very loudly and rubbed her eyes. Not too long after, he did the same.

"I slept so little…" she said tiredly "little less than 4 hours"

"Yes, so did I… but at least we were together" he finished smiling.

She smiled back and said "Yes, well… we should take a shower and change our clothes before going to the kitchen… But you don't have any…"

"Maybe I can get out through the window?"

"Oh… yes, but I don't know how far you would have to go… And maybe there's someone outside that may see you"

"No, this is the back garden… and if I'm right, everyone else is either having breakfast or going to work right now… Besides, I'm fast as lightning" he finished smiling proudly.

She laughed at that and said "Okay flash, I'll meet you back at the kitchen"

He put on his shoes and opened the window when he turned back and said "I miss you already" in a sweet tone.

She ran to him and gave him a sweet peck on the lips before replying "I miss you too". After that he got out of the window and into the grass moving quickly and checking the windows to see where he was going, luckily his bedroom window was open so he quickly jumped in.

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, let's get down to bussiness XD, i feel the need to warn you that after this chapter things get deep, depressing, trigger warning deep (by this i mean that if you had something similar in your past as Otoya's... trigger... and also something else but i don't want to spoil it... it's not that bad XD no one get's raped or anything like that).
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Uta no Prince sama or any of its characters.

Ren knocked on Shining's office door and waited. Weird noises were coming from inside and he honestly wanted to leave (God knows what Starish would be doing now) but he was way too curious to give up now. Just as he was about to knock again he heard muffled noises from inside that resembled someone saying "Come in!" so he decided to just open the door.

Weirdly enough, inside the room was Starish sitting on his desk like nothing was going on leaving Ren and Masato wondering ' _what were those noises?!'_

"Do you boys want something?"

"Yes, we were wondering if you knew where Ittoki Otoya is" said Masato.

"Oh, that. He must be in his room; I don't know why you're asking me"

"That's exactly why we're asking, he's nowhere to be seen. Besides, you seem to know our every move with the appearing out of nowhere and all that" replied Ren slightly annoyed.

"Well, if you believe that then you must believe that what I'm telling you is true: the boy is in his room" said Shining matter-of-factly.

The boys looked like they were at a loss of words so Shining decided to end the conversation and let them go by saying "Now, if you excuse me I need to work here" and pointed towards the door.

They walked outside and continued walking all the way to Otoya's bedroom without knocking first. Inside they found the redhead drying his hair with a towel as he hummed Smile Magic. The towel was covering his face and he was pretty distracted anyways so he didn't notice their presence until he stopped drying his hair.

"Ren, Masato! What are you guys doing here?" he asked surprised.

They looked at him suspiciously for a moment and then Ren proceeded to ask him "What are  _you_  doing here?"

"… Well it  _is_  my room, so…"

"No, that's not what I asked. We were here just minutes ago and you where God knows where, we looked for you everywhere"

"Oh, you missed me?" he said mischievously.

Ren got close to him and hit him on the head "Of course not you dumbass, but it was weird"

"Cecil told us you were up late last night with Haruka" said Masato interrupting the moment.

"Ah… yes, I was. What does that have to do with anything?"

"What were you doing with the Little Lamb?"

"No-nothing, we just talked" he said blushing.

"Then why are you blushing?" Ren said impatiently "Look, I don't have the time for this. Just tell me what you two were doing together and I'll be on my merry way"

Otoya started stuttering and just looking around the room for a way to escape the situation thinking ' _what do I do now?!'_ He really thought about coming clean and then his phone vibrated. He had a text from Haruka; it said " _Otoya-kun! I finished a new song for you!_ **(✿づ◠‿◠◠‿◠◠‿◠◠‿◠** **^.○○○^◠‿◠)づ** _"_ _._ He smiled and thanked Haruka for being such a sweetheart, she had saved him.

"Haruka needed to talk to me because she made me another song but wasn't really sure about it"

"Is that so?" said Ren.

"Yes, it is"

"Huh… so the Little Lamb made a song for you but not for the rest of us… Why do you get any special treatment?"

' _Damn it Ren! What do I say now?'_  Otoya felt trapped again but before he could do anything Reiji walked in.

"Otoyan! Haruka-chan is waiting for you downstairs!" he said happily.

Ren was about to question the redhead more but Otoya ran through the open door as if his life depended on it and disappeared out of the room.

 **~o~h~o~h~o~h~o~h~o~h~o~h~o~h~o~h~o~h**  ~

"Haruka!" yelled Otoya as he ran towards her.

She looked up and smiled "What took you so long?"

He was breathing heavily but still managed to find the strength to say "I… Ren… Masa… you…" between breaths.

"Take a deep breath and try to make sense" she said giggling.

He did just as she asked and said "Ren and Masa where in my room interrogating me about you. If it wasn't for Reiji-san I wouldn't have gotten out of there"

"Mmm, we should go talk to the principal about this…"

"Okay… but I want to have breakfast with my beautiful" he said and then finished whispering "girlfriend".

She smiled as she whispered "well, it would be nice to have breakfast with my handsome boyfriend". They tried to keep a straight face but they started giggling like crazy then to the point that they were laughing so hard they were crying. Of course that was the perfect moment for Tokiya to walk inside the kitchen.

"What's so funny?" he asked somberly.

They tried to answer but they still couldn't breathe which made Tokiya grow more impatient. He just decided to ignore them for a moment and eat a banana while he put some bread on the toaster. At that point they could somehow speak again.

"Didn't you have breakfast with everyone else?" asked Otoya.

"What do you think?" he replied angrily.

' _… Tokiya is scary when he's hungry… actually Tokiya is scary most of the time when he feels annoyed… Which would be all the time…'_ thought Otoya.

The brunette boy suddenly sat next to Haruka and looked her straight in the eye. Needless to say, the atmosphere got awkward very quickly.

"Um… Ichinose-san… is there something that you want?"

"Yes, I just want you to answer me one question with yes or no. Can you do that?"

Otoya was about to jump and scream at his friend ' _Of course she can do that!'_  but Haruka answered before he could do anything.

"Of course, what is it?"

"Did you and Otoya spent all the time together last night?"

They both blushed furiously and then Haruka answered in almost a whisper "Yes".

"…Okay… Thank you, that's all I needed to know" and with that he got up grabbed his toasts, a fresh glass of milk and left the kitchen.

Both redheads were left speechless for a moment. They couldn't quite process what just happened. So in a way of trying to get the mood lighter again Otoya asked the question that was in both of their minds.

"What the heck just happened?"

Haruka giggled and answered "I honestly don't know".

Otoya smiled softly and looked down at the table. As he did that, he noticed that his plate was still empty; they hadn't eaten anything yet so he got an idea.

"Hey, why don't I make breakfast for the both of us?"

"Better yet: why don't we make breakfast together?" she said.

They decided to make somewhat of an American breakfast: some scrambled eggs, waffles with honey and butter, milk, coffee and some fruit for balance. When they finished they had some company. The wonderful smell of the food had attracted Syo and Natsuki to the kitchen.

"Mmmm… what's that?" asked Natsuki pointing towards the oven. Upon seeing the redheads he yelled "Haru-chan? Oto-chan? Are you two cooking?"

The aforementioned turned around slightly surprised and simply answered with a synchronized "yes" quickly turning back to their cooking.

A couple of minutes later Syo asked: "… Now that I think about it… Where were you Otoya?"

Both blondes were quite surprised when no answer came from their friend. Syo was about to ask again when Natsuki stopped him and whispered "Just look at them". He decided to do just as he asked but couldn't really grasp what he was supposed to be seeing so after a couple of moments he whispered back "What am I supposed to be looking at? They are just cooking in silence". Natsuki face palmed and grabbed his friend's hand taking him out of the kitchen so they could talk properly.

"Couldn't you feel it?" he asked.

"What? Feel what? The smell of food? What are you talking about?" Syo asked annoyed.

"No dummy, they were  _really_ comfortable with each other in there, they were cooking at the same rhythm and more than that: psychologically coordinated too"

"I think you really hit your head hard this time. They were just cooking. What's the big deal?"

He sighed and replied "Okay, let's say I'm exaggerating. Let's go back and eat with them, you can watch the way they act and then tell me what  _you_ think"

"Fine!"

They slowly made their way back inside as Haruka and Otoya were serving the food on their dishes. She looked up at them and said: "Oh, guys: you wanted to eat some? We made too much so it doesn't really matter"

"Yes, of course. I would love to try your food Haru-chan!" Natsuki said as Syo nodded.

"Hey! It's my food too!"

"Yes yes Oto-chan, but we already tried yours, we never tasted Haruka's wonderful cooking skills" he said cheerfully.

They all sat at the table and started eating happily. That is with the exception of Syo who was watching Otoya and Haruka as if they were an accident about to happen and he just couldn't look away. Luckily, they didn't notice since they were way too concentrated in eating and stealing little glances at each other. They were so distracted that they forgot they had any company and before they knew it they started to feed each other. But as the red eyed boy was about to have a second bite at Haruka's pancakes Syo snapped and hit the table.

"Okay. What the hell is going on?!"

Haruka got so surprised she let go of the fork she was holding making it fall to the ground with a piece of the delicious food. "Syo-kun! You scared me!"

"Oh… um… Sorry, I went a bit too far… But the question still applies!"

After Otoya picked up the fork he looked at Haruka. They weren't really sure about what they should do.

"Um… Okay… can you keep a secret?" the redhead suddenly said looking at his friends.

"Otoya-kun!" Haruka stopped him.

"Haruka, I don't want to hide this, and much less to our friends. They deserve to know"

"But… What about the principal?"

"He said we couldn't tell the fans not that we couldn't tell our friends"

While they discussed their situation back and forward Syo and Natsuki shared curious looks.

It took them a while but after much deliberation and forming many doubts in their poor friends' heads they finally decided they should tell them the truth.

"Okay… the thing is that me and Haruka are-" and right in that second he was cut off by Cecil running and screaming bloody murder into the kitchen.

"NO! YOU CAN'T SAY IT!"

"Cecil-san?" said Haruka.

"YOU CAN'T SAY IT! IF YOU DO IT BECOMES TRUE AND IF IT IS TRUE THEN THEN…"

"Cecil! Calm down! Nothing bad is going to happen, I promise" said Otoya.

"HOW CAN YOU PROMISE THAT?"

"Because the principal gave us permition and as long as the fans don't know: everything is going to be okay"

"Gave you permition to what? Could you please tell us what's going on once and for all" said Syo exasperated.

Otoya opened his mouth to talk but Haruka stopped him with a small gesture as if saying "I've got this".

"We are dating. It's as simple as that" she said calmly.

The two blondes looked just as shocked as Cecil looked confused and angry. They would start talking but stopping mid-sentence multiple times. It seemed like no one was going to talk ever again so Haruka decided to do the brave thing to make everyone finally react: she sat in her boyfriend's lap. Seeing that, Cecil and Syo started yelling like crazy while Natsuki just stared dumbfoundedly in the background. When they got close to pull the pink haired girl away from Otoya, she stopped them and with that they came to their senses.

"How did this happen? When? Why? What? Where?" Syo asked extremely confused.

Haruka took a deep breath and said: "We wanted to be together and the principal let us; Yesterday… or does it count as today? It was 4 am…; I'm pretty sure I covered the why with the how; we are dating; Um… I don't know if it should count in the kitchen or in the principal's office…"

"So… You are actually doing this… Good to know…" Cecil said looking at Haruka, then he turned at Otoya and said "But don't you think I'm going to give up on her! I won't go out without a fight" and with that he kissed Haruka's hand and walked out of the kitchen. When he left Otoya made a growling jealous sound making Haruka look at him sweetly and giving him a quick peck on the lips afterwards. Of course: she had forgotten the presence of her friends.

"Hey! Okay! I get it, you two are dating, but you don't have to rub it in my face you know?" said Syo.

Upon hearing that, Haruka blushed deeply and muttered an apology. They fell awkwardly silent again and this time it seemed nothing she could do would make the air less dense. Finally in an attempt to make everyone feel better, Natsuki spoke.

"… So… this was nice… How are you Haru-chan?"

She looked up at him and replied smiling: "I'm good, happy"

"I'm glad, that's all I need to know. If you are happy, I'm happy" he finished and looked at Syo as if saying " _What about you?"_

"Well, of course I'm happy if she's happy! I just… I need some time to be okay with this… I need to go" he got up and walked out of the room. Natsuki quickly followed behind him after waving goodbye to his friends.

Haruka laid her head on Otoya's shoulder and sighed ' _What are we going to do?'_


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... As i said before, this chapter is a bit sadder than the other ones. But upon reading it again i can safely say it's not that sad XD. I hope you enjoy this one as well and thank you for reading!
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Uta no Prince-sama or any of its characters.

**_1 hour later (11 p.m.) ~_ **

 

Haruka had asked Otoya to spend all the time he had left before going to work with her. Of course, he said yes.

"You'll see everything will turn out okay" the ruby eyed boy said stroking gently Haruka's hand.

They were in the music room because Haruka felt really guilty so she tried to write a new song for each and every one of them as an apology for not being more understanding of their feelings.

"… I don't know Otoya-kun… I feel so bad…"

"You don't have to, really. Come on, cheer up, they'll get over it in no time"

"How do you know?"

"I really don't" he said giggling, trying to make Haruka feel better. It only made her feel worse. She had a grim look on her face that made Otoya stop smiling all together. "Haruka… I know you feel bad, and I actually feel pretty bad myself but we can't just mope around, what's done is done and besides: isn't it better this way? They deserved to know, not telling them would've been worse"

She looked up at him faking a smile and said "I guess you're right…"

Otoya usually tried his best to stay happy as much as he could, he hated being sad or seeing people sad, that's why he wanted to be an idol: to bring smiles, real smiles to people's faces, to make them happy, to let them feel if even for just the four minutes of a song that they had nothing to worry about.

He remembered little about his biological mother but in the small time they spent together he recollected how happy she was singing Shining's songs, dancing around in their house. He wanted to make people feel like that, like his friends in the orphanage made him feel. All of this made him repress any upsetting feeling when he was surrounded by people and even sometimes when he was alone. And while that may seem like a pretty stable behavior for people around him, inside he was slowly coming to his limit, to the point he had to break down or he would get physically sick. Because even though he claimed he had a happy childhood (he truly did) with his friends and adoptive mom later on, he was still haunted by little questions as ' _Why didn't my dad want me?_ ' and  _'Why did my mom had to leave me?'_  Lately those questions had been deep in the back of his mind but after what Haruka told him about his father, they were coming up again and he couldn't let that, he had to stay strong for her, for his friends. He couldn't lose them.

With all of that in mind, he decided to suddenly hug his girlfriend, surprising her and himself at the tightness of the hug. She was the one feeling sad but she sensed he was the one that needing comforting so she quickly hugged him back just as tightly. The only sound in the room was the beating of their hearts, getting louder and louder. When they couldn't resist anymore they broke apart just enough to aloud them to kiss. This time it was different than the others, the kiss was more desperate, less sweet, and sloppy all around. But they didn't care; they just wanted to be as close to each other as possible. With that in mind, Otoya leaned in closer to Haruka, making her lay down on the bench they were sitting in with him on top of her. They weren't thinking clearly, they were just doing what they felt like doing, what their bodies craved for. He pulled away for a short second to take his shirt off and then continued to kiss her as she took her coat off. At that moment he decided to start unbuttoning her dress as he kissed her neck for the first time. They were both shirtless now and it wouldn't take too long for them to go all the way, but before that, Otoya leaned in to kiss her once again on the lips (after leaving some red marks on her neck). In the split moment it took him to go from one part to the other, Haruka came back to her senses. She pushed him away touching his chest (and upon realizing he had no shirt on: blushing deeply) and breathlessly said "No… Stop"

It took him a moment to take in the words she said "What… What do you mean?"

She looked at him in the eyes and said "I love you, but I'm not ready yet. I'm sorry"

He would've normally told her something among the lines of " _No, it's not your fault. You don't need to apologize, it's okay"_ but today was not a normal occasion. He was furious, he didn't answer her. He stared at her with a cold look that made his red eyes look like fire.

After what seemed like forever, he got up, put his shirt back on and walked out angrily closing the door quite harshly behind him, leaving a confused Haruka shirtless, cold and alone.

She didn't even move, she couldn't, it hurt too much. She wanted to put her dress and coat back on but the only thing she could do was cry. In no time her small cries turned into ugly sobbing as she curled up into a ball thinking ' _Where did I go wrong?'_

**~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~**

 

After he closed the door Otoya started walking away faster and faster until he was running. Running from his thoughts, running from what he did, just running. He couldn't stop and he didn't know where he was going, he just knew that he had to go.

When he got to the door that separated him from the outside he put his sneakers on and his coat. As he opened it, he welcomed the piercing cold before resuming his running. He was about to start again when he realized he wouldn't get very far by foot so he got on his bicycle and rode off.

**~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~**

 

Haruka cried until she just felt numb. Not sad, not angry: empty. She slowly got up, put her dress back on buttoning it up emotionlessly. She grabbed her coat and put it on as she walked out of the room, walking slowly to hers.

She didn't want to think anymore, she was just so exhausted. She couldn't even take the covers of her bed off. Because 1) she didn't want to… She was sure the sheets still smelled like him and 2) she couldn't bother. She passed out on her bed without changing and just let go of the cruel reality.

**~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~**

 

' _What? Why? How?'_ was all Otoya could think as he pedaled away from the dorms. It would've been hard to avoid cars at the speed he was going (and the state of mind he was on) but thankfully he rode through almost empty streets most of the time. As he was reaching a deep fatigue he decided (or more like: his body did) to stop on top of a little hill with view to the lake. He couldn't feel his legs so he just laid down on the grass looking up at the sky. This was exactly what he didn't want: have time to think, so he decided that maybe he could just fall asleep right there, who cared anyways, right? Nope. Obviously the adrenaline from riding the bicycle all the way there was keeping him as awake as possible and clearing his mind allowing him to reflect on what he had done.

' _She must hate me now. I should've just gone to bed and let her be with Cecil that night… But… She said she loves me… well… More like love_ _ **d**_ _after what I did today. What got into me?'_ he thought as a couple of tears rolled down his face. Then it dawned on him ' _I have to apologize and just… leave… I can't hurt her again… I need to leave'_

He was getting up when it occurred to him ' _I need to know who my father is… I can't go on like this… But I can't ask her… What can I do?'_ A little voice in the back of his mind told him that she didn't hate him, that this could turn out okay, that he needed to stay but he was too confused. When he saw the hurt look on her face before leaving he realized he could never do that to her again, that he couldn't forgive himself for that, so: why should she?

He got up still not knowing what to do and felt an excruciating pain in both his legs and arms. He shouldn't have ridden so much after sleeping so little the night before. But he just thought it was his karma; that he had to pay for what he did. Even though he really believed that, he could barely move. So, with great effort, he sat down and looked down at the lake.

__

**~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~h~o~h~**

****

**_Back at the Starish dorms ~_ **

 

"Boys! Where are you all?! Ringo is here to bring some fun!" he got no response which was pretty weird given it was almost three p.m. by then. He went to the living room and seeing no one there either he tried again "Boys?!" He decided to go check on Haruka just in case. He walked up to her room and lightly knocked on the door "Haruka?" no response "Haru-chan? Are you there?" upon saying that he heard a low response from the other side. Suddenly a very puffy –and red- eyed girl opened the door.

"Ringo-san" she just said in a hoarse voice.

"Haru-chan? What happened? Have you been crying?" she honestly wanted to answer " _no"_ , close back the door and go back to sleep but she just wasn't strong enough at that point so she just nodded.

"Oh, honey. Let me in, you'll see: I'm gonna make you feel better"

They walked back in as Ringo closed the door behind them and got to the curtains to open them "How can you see anything?"

"I… was sleeping"

"Oh" Haruka went to sit on her still made bed and Ringo followed.

"So… What happened? You know you can trust me"

She bit her lip and replied "…It's a bit too personal"

"Oh? What do you mean? Are you having boy problems?" she nodded "Huh… But honey, you can't date… Is that the problem?"

"No… the principal let us be together"

"Oh wow, really? Huh… Then… Who is him?"

Haruka opened her mouth to answer but Ringo stopped her "Wait! Let me guess!" she just nodded in response.

"Is it… Tokiya-kun?" she shaked her head "Okay…then… I know! It's Otoya-kun isn't it?!" she just looked down at her lap in response.

"Oh honey, come on, you'll feel better if you tell me what happened" he said as he slightly stroked her hand.

She looked up at him, took a deep breath and finally told him what happened. Ringo was speechless when she finished talking as he gave her a quick hug.

"I'm sure he didn't mean any harm" he said "But I don't think I could help you much with telling you that, can I?" she stayed silent "You need to talk to him; it must be a big misunderstanding. But keep in mind that you didn't do  _anything_ wrong, absolutely nothing" She nodded and gestured towards the bed as if asking " _Can I sleep now?"_ Ringo smiled in response and walked up to the door but before he could open it he heard her say in a very low, weak voice "Thank you, it actually helped a little"

When he was far enough from her room, he took out his cellphone and dialed Otoya's number. It took a couple of calls but he finally picked up.

"Hello?"

"Otoya-kun, it's Ringo, where are you?"

"…Not in the dorms"

"Yes, I can see that. Now get your ass back here before I track you down and beat you up for hurting sweet Haru-chan"

"… How is she?" he asked sadly.

"How do you think she is?! Devastated! Now, I don't know what happened to you. I'm sure you have your reasons but you need to talk this kind of things through. A couple is made out of two people: you have to discuss your problems together and make decisions about the relationship together!"

"But-" Ringo cut him off.

"No buts young man! Now get back here!" and with that he hanged up.

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Uta no Prince-sama or any of its characters.

Otoya just wanted to sleep. He had forgotten about work so when he remembered it was a bit late. But that was not the problem. The problem was that he had to ride his bicycle all the way down to the studio (which was pretty far) and try to get there in time. It was physically impossible, his legs hurt too much. But he actually made it somewhat in time. The crew was really mad at him not only for getting late but for looking like he had been run over by a truck. Thankfully with the promise of never ever doing that again, he was forgiven (given that he never did that before). He had to decide whether to ride his way back home (and keep the bicycle) or to go in the agency car and that someone else took care of his bike.  It didn’t take him much to make the choice.

As he was heading back, his phone rang. He didn’t even know he had it with him. It surprised him that Ringo had called and even more that Haruka had talked to him. What didn’t shock him at all was how angry he was at him. But the teacher was not as angry as he was with himself. After all, he was right: he had to go back and apologize, because he truly felt bad, sorry even. He wasn’t looking for redemption, he was just trying to make her feel better, to give her closure, anything she needed. He was thinking about all this as he got in the car, thinking about what he could say to her. But fatigue got the best of him. The second he laid his back in the car seat, he quickly fell asleep.

 

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

Ringo ended up in Shining’s office in his search for the boys. He knocked but didn’t wait for a response and just went in.

“Shining! Where are all the Starish boys?!” the alluded was sitting at his desk checking some papers.

“They must be working” he simply answered.

“I’m not taking that crap. And what about this ‘ _why don’t we let a couple of kids date’_ out of nowhere? What about the rules?” Ringo was completely furious.

The principal looked up at him, sighed deeply and replied “I don’t know… The boys went out after work, I believe. They should be here any second”

“You still haven’t answered! Why letting them break the rules? Didn’t they exist for a reason?” seeing no response he continued “Now as predicted: everything went to hell, are you happy now? I’m pretty sure you have just lost a member of Starish and God knows what the rest of them will do know…”

As Shining heard that, he couldn’t take it anymore “Okay! I’m sorry, okay?! I thought it was a good idea since I’m pretty sure they would’ve broken the rules anyways if I said ‘no’”

Ringo looked at him observationally and after a moment he said “What makes _him_ special?”

“… I don’t know what you mean”

“Sure you do! Those kids don’t have the guts to break the rules if you directly tell them not to! They are like cute little bunnies that treat everyone nicely!”

Shining took his sunglasses off, stroked his hair and sat back down. He was truly sad about what happened. Some moments ago one of his assistants called to say that Otoya had gotten quite late to work and that he didn’t look very good. He had made another mistake; he thought that allowing him to date the girl he wanted would make him happy, that nothing could turn out wrong like it did for him. But it seemed he had been right in the first place when he banned dating.

He was deep in his thoughts when he realized that Ringo was still waiting for an answer. He decided to just come clean and get it over with.

“He’s my son” he said looking up at the pink haired man.

“WHAT?! YOUR WHAT?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!”

“No, I’m serious”

“WHA-. I can’t believe this! Does he know this?”

“I don’t think he does…”

“Wow… I don’t even know what to say!”

“You don’t need to say anything, in fact: I would really appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone about this. But I really need your help with him. I don’t know what happened but it seems I ruined it again… So please help him”

Ringo thought about it for a moment, pondering the possibilities.

“Okay, deal. But you have to do something in return for me, anything”

“Sure, of course. You name it”

“I won’t tell you now; I don’t need anything at the moment. But know you are in _debt_ with me” and with that, he proudly walked out of the office.

He was making his way to the living room when the front door opened. Ringo stopped in his tracks and stood there waiting to see who would be the next victim of his wrath.

To his surprise (and deception) Hyuuga walked in.

“What are you doing here?!” Ringo yelled angrily.

“Um… Hi, it’s nice to see you too”

The pink haired man took a deep breath and then replied “I don’t have time for this” then he had a thought “Do you know where the Starish boys are?”

“Oh, they were right behind me. Well, at least some of them were. They should be here any second now”

“Perfect” he said as he rubbed his hands.

“Should I know?”

“Nope nope, move on” with that Hyuuga walked away as he muttered “ _craaazy”_ which as strange as it was made Ringo smirk ‘ _they’ll see who the crazy one is’_

He walked all the way to the couch and sat there, waiting.

 

**_1 hour later ~_ **

****

Ringo was so tired of waiting that he decided to change his nail polish right then. But that really didn’t take more than fifteen minutes and another ten for it to dry. His patience was almost non-existent by that point so he thanked the Gods when the front door opened again.

In walked Syo, Natsuki and Tokiya. They looked worn out and had vacant stares on their faces.

“Oh my! You finally honour me with your presence!” The boys just sighed in response which only made Ringo angrier.

“Where have you been all day?!”

Tokiya muttered “ _working_ ” in response as both blondes made approving sounds.

“Well someone’s moody today…” Ringo said.

“Look who’s talking” replied Syo angrily.

“Syo-kun! Did you just talk back at me?!”

“So? What if I did? Are you gonna ground me or something?”

“I just might!”

“Syo-kun, calm down” said Natsuki in a worried tone.

“I don’t want to calm down! Can’t I be angry?!”

“… Is this because of Haruka-chan? Are you all jelly over her and Otoya?” said Ringo smiling.

“I’M NOT JELLY!” Syo yelled and seconds later asked “What does that mean?”

Ringo giggled in response and answered: “It means you are jealous, dummy”

“I’M NOT!”

“Look honey, I don’t have time to talk like I’m ten. I was just waiting for you all ‘cuz something happened to Haruka and I thought you’d want to be there for her… Given that you are her friends” they looked sadly to the ground and Ringo continued “… But I guess I was wrong. All you care about is yourselves”

That really made them feel guilty so they kept quiet looking embarrassed to the floor for a couple of minutes. That is until Natsuki finally spoke up and said: “What happened to Haru-chan?”

“… I’m glad you asked. But I can’t answer that, I promised I wouldn’t tell”

“Then how could we possibly help her?” asked Tokiya.

“I’m pretty sure just being there for her would be enough. She needs her friends and she honestly thinks that you guys hate her now”

“We don’t hate her!” they all said at the same time.

“Yes, I know and you know; but she doesn’t. You should go talk to her” they nodded in response.

“Where is she?” asked Syo.

“Oh, she’s in-” he got cut off by the front door opening one more time. This time Otoya walked in, looking absolutely horrible. He made a little grumbling noise when he got in and slightly opened his puffy red eyes (not only red ‘cuz of his natural color but also from the lack of sleep and crying). When he saw that everyone was staring at him he stopped in his tracks (that were pretty slow to begin with), bowed and said “I’m _so_ sorry!” Then he lifted his head and as he looked at the boys he said “I love you guys” and started sobbing. His friends really didn’t know how to respond, after all that happened they’d never imagined that Otoya would act like that ‘ _He has Haruka after all’_ was all they could think about. But then what Ringo had told them came to mind. ‘ _What did he do?’_

Tokiya was about to start questioning the redhead, ignoring completely the state of mind he was in when Natsuki launched himself in the air and hugged the life out of Otoya.

“And we love you too!” he said as he squeezed the ruby eyed boy. What surprised him though, was that not only Otoya didn’t pull away gasping for air, but that he hugged back just as tightly. Feeling that, Natsuki exclaimed “Group hug!” and after a couple of moments of wondering “ _should we really?”_ everyone else joined in.

When they broke apart Tokiya had gotten emotional. He grabbed Otoya’s shoulders and looked him in the eye as he said: “I don’t know what happened between you and Haruka but know that no matter how this turns out, I’ll always be there for you… And her” he let go at that. The redhead got all teary eyed and yelled “Tokiyaaaa” as he hugged his friend again. It seemed they had made their peace with the situation... Well, everyone except for Syo. He was standing behind them doing a pouty face. Seeing him, Otoya started making weird faces so that his friend would laugh. It didn’t matter how much he tried, Syo finally gave in and they hugged it out as he said “I’m sorry too”.

 

**_1 hour later ~_ **

 

Ringo had made the boys some coffee since they needed it so much (especially Otoya) as they talked about everything and nothing, avoiding the only important conversation topic at the moment: Haruka.

But it seemed they were energetic enough to aboard the topic now, so Ringo started giving not-so-subtle hints.

“You know Otoya-kun, naps shouldn’t last longer than three hours” seeing as they weren’t getting what he meant he continued “Some people like to take naps after going to sleep late in the evening” The redhead was about to ask what the heck he was talking about when his phone vibrated. Someone was calling him and he didn’t have the courage to check if it was who he thought so he let it rang. Of course: Ringo couldn’t let that happen so at the moment the boy got distracted, the pink haired man took his cellphone and picked up giving him back the phone.

Otoya was about to hang-up anyways but when he saw the picture of the caller ID he just had to talk; it was a cute little photograph he and Haruka had taken a couple of moments after breakfast that morning.

“He-Hello?” he answered.

“Otoya-kun. We need to talk. Come to my room” and then she hanged up. Otoya was terrified, she sounded so cold over the phone. He was sure she was breaking up with him, after all: ‘ _She has every right to’_

He looked up at his friends as if looking for support and as they smiled in encouragement, he got up.

When he was far enough not to hear anything that was said in the room, Syo said “If she breaks up with him I call dibs!”

“You can’t do that! She’s not an object!” replied Ringo.

“Okay, then. You’re out. Someone else wants to give up?”

“I agree she’s not an object but I understand the sentiment. If she rejects Otoya and wants to be with me later on, I’m not sure I could deny her that” said Tokiya.

“What about ‘the friend’s rules’? Like: ‘You can’t date your friend’s exes’?” said Natsuki.

“… I don’t know man… I’m not thinking very clearly right now. But if she wants to be with me, just like Tokiya said: I don’t think I can say no. Besides: he already knew we all had feelings for her even before they started dating so it’s not like he doesn’t know what he’s getting into…” said Syo.

“Boys, I think you are missing the point here. If you all try to date her: You will fight with each other. If you fight with each other, the band gets separated. If the band gets disbanded, bye bye idol dreams. Do you understand what I mean?” replied Ringo matter-of-factly.

They all nodded in agreement and made a silent pact not to date Haruka unless every member of the band explicitly stated that he was okay with it. A pact they would later involve Ren, Masato, Cecil and Otoya in (yes, even him). 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Uta no Prince-sama or any of its characters.

Otoya walked nervously all the steps to Haruka’s room. He still felt incredibly guilty for what he made her go through, but he had to face her, after all: she wanted that.

When he got to the door, he felt sick. He wanted to run away and hide but he knew that was not right, he had to confront the consequences of his own actions. So he knocked. He stood there for a moment and suddenly: the door opened. The strange thing though was that Haruka was not there.

He got in anyways and looked behind the door (since that was the only hiding spot she could have chosen that would allow her to open the door). But everything was really dark with the windows covered so his eyes couldn’t adapt fast enough and just as fast as it opened, the door closed and someone pushed him to the ground.

“Ow! Haruka?!” he asked.

She didn’t reply. She just helped him sit and then harshly pressed her lips against his. He didn’t even have time to react to the kiss when she grabbed his hair pulling him closer. He kissed back then, pulling her closer by the waist. When they broke apart for air, she started unbuttoning her dress which snapped Otoya back to reality.

“Haruka, what are you doing?” she had a bit of a problem with one of the buttons so she was taking a while.

“I’m sorry, this button hates me today” he held her hand to stop her.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked sweetly.

She looked up at him and said “Because I want to”

“Wha-… Are you sure?” she nodded “Really? Are you sure you’re not doing this because of what happened today?”

“Of course I’m-” he tilted his head slightly to one side making her stop “not…”

He tenderly touched her face and said “I’m sorry Haruka, this is really my fault. I got mad at you for no reason and hurt you… I hope you can forgive me for what I did… even though I don’t deserve your forgiveness; you should never feel pressured to do something that you don’t want just to please me”

She let her head rest in his hand and answered: “Of course I forgive you! I was just scared that you wouldn’t want me anymore if I wasn’t _with_ you… Just… Don’t do that again?”

He sighed and replied: “I won’t, I promise. And to set the record straight: There is nothing you can do that would make me want you less” she giggled in delight, gave him a quick peck on the lips and hugged him.

“I love you” she said hugging him tighter.

He started making rubbing circles in her back as he said “I love you too”.

As they broke apart Otoya realized she still had her dressed unbuttoned so he blushed and helped her button it up again. When he finished he looked up at her, saw how much she was blushing and thought ‘ _cute!’_

“I missed you” he said.

“… I missed you too” she replied still blushing.

He got up and helped her get up as well. They walked all the way to her bed and sat there. They stayed silent for a moment and then Haruka had a thought.

“Why were you angry?”

He looked up at her for a minute and then looked back at his lap “I don’t want to talk about it”

Upon hearing that she made a puppy face, teary eyed and said “Pweeese?” (Please)

“No… Don’t look at me like that… It’s not fair… Okay, fine”

“Yay!”

He sighed deeply and said “I… I think I was angry at my father for not being there when I needed him, for not telling me why… I got angry at my mom for leaving me so early, but I know it wasn’t her fault at all and… I don’t know… Thinking about that made me feel like I had to be closer to you, that I needed to know that you would never leave me and when you said ‘no’… I just felt like you were rejecting me… I don’t know what happened I just couldn’t think straight… I’m sorry” he clenched his knuckles as he looked down.

“…Why did that all came to you all of the sudden?”

He thought about it for a moment and then he replied: “I don’t know… I was just feeling like everyone was leaving me again… I just couldn’t take that… And after what you said about my father…”

She sighed and said “I never should’ve told you about it, should I?”

“No, I really appreciate that you did. You just made me think about something that had been troubling me for ages; I needed to talk about it sometime, to get it off my chest, and I thank you for that”

“… You’re just saying that because you’re nice”

He smiled and replied “No, I’m not, I’m serious”

She smiled back as she blushed looking down making Otoya think ‘ _why did I ever think (if I was thinking…) that she would sleep with me? Look at her, she blushes when I smile! Oh wait… I also blush when she smiles… What was I thinking about again?’_

“… You know Otoya-kun… I’m still wondering… If what you said about your parents is true: have you been pretending to be happy all this time?”

He snapped out of his thoughts and replied “No, I haven’t. I just try not to be sad… Umm… How do I say this without sounding like I’m crazy…” he thought about it for a while and then he finally continued “Usually when I get angry or sad I tend to first think for a moment if getting worked up for whatever it is that’s making me feel that way is worth it. Most of the time it isn’t so I try to think on the positive side, take deep breaths and count to ten and forget about it… Now, I’m not saying I always hide my emotions when I get angry or sad, but most of the time (with the exception of today) I think before I act”

“Oh… Really?” he nodded in response “then you wouldn’t mind telling me why you got all angry on Cecil last night?”

“Oh… I… Umm…” he stuttered as he blushed a deep shade of red.

It was her turn to think about how cute he was when he blushed but something was still bothering her and wouldn’t allow her to properly enjoy being back with her boyfriend after such a rollercoaster-of-emotions day. She just needed to ask him one last thing before she could really forgive and forget about what had happened that day.

He was still blushing looking cutely to the ground when she asked: “So… Umm… Otoya-kun… Don’t you want to know who your father is? How can you get it off your chest if you don’t talk to him?”

He thought about it for a second and then, looking up at her, he replied: “You know, I thought about it. Earlier today I really wanted to know, but you know what? I realized that no matter what he says, I don’t need to know who he is because I already have a father” she looked at him with a confused expression on her face allowing him to continue “You see, all the teachers that I had, the men that worked on the orphanage when I was little, my friends in Starish and mostly my moms: they all make up for my perfect father, they raised me in a way, taught me how to live. I don’t need a DNA test to tell me who my father is, I already know” Upon hearing that, she smiled brightly making him smile back.

She suddenly had a thought “But… what will you do if you get mad like that again?”

“… I’m sure it won’t happen again as long as I don’t forget the wonderful friends I have. But if it did, now I know that no matter what he did… I have my own family here” he finished touching her cheek.

She smiled leaning in his hand and replied “I’ll always be there for you, don’t forget that… But please don’t scare me like that again”

He grimaced getting closer to her and whispered “I won’t” His husky voice in her ear and the warmth of his breath made her tremble as she quickly turned her face and kissed him passionately. Just as fast as she started, he kissed back putting his other hand at the other side of her face.

When they broke apart to breathe he started giving her small kisses on her nose, cheeks, neck and every part of her face he could find. She started to blush furiously and really tried to avoid giggling but as he kissed one of her ears she couldn’t take it anymore, it was a really sensitive part. As she pulled away laughing he looked down at the floor looking red like a tomato.

“Uh… I… Sorry… I didn’t mean to” she started between breaths.

“… Oh… no, it’s okay… I’m not very sexy, am I? I just thought that would be…” He was so embarrassed he couldn’t even finish his sentence as he blushed more and more.

She had stopped laughing then and got closer to him as she thought ‘ _maybe some payback would be nice…’_ and whispered seductively in his ear “I think you are… very sexy” Hearing that, he quickly sat up as he made a little ‘squee’ noise still blushing like mad. He murmured something about going to the bathroom and ran off to her private one. The only thing she could think was ‘ _Is this the same boy I almost slept with?’_ But she was really happy he was back to his old happy-go-lucky self ‘ _as long as his sexy self is still there’_ she suddenly thought making herself blush.

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

Ren, Masato and Cecil had been put up to speed on recent events shortly after they arrived. And after some intense arguing they all agreed on the “pact” the others had made.

Ringo told them they should be more comprehensive of their friends just like they always were with them. That if they truly “loved” Haruka as they were claiming they should support any decision that she made (as long as it made her happy). And Otoya was a good boy after all, and also their friend; they shouldn’t judge their relationship if it made them both happy and besides: it didn’t really involve them. With all of this in mind they tried their best to act as cool as possible around them but as the aforementioned couple came into the living room holding hands and slightly blushing happily, they had to restrain their jealousy for their friends.

After some pretty awkward silence (coming from the Starish boys and Ringo, Haruka and Otoya were in another world), said pink haired teacher decided he needed to know all the story before letting the situation go on. So he asked the ruby eyed boy to have a conversation in private, leaving his girlfriend alone in a room full of jealous boys.

Haruka decided to talk to them all before things could get tense again.

“So… guys… How was your day?”

They all replied at the same time in a monotone voice “Good”

“Oh… Um… that’s… nice…” she started to get really nervous fidgeting with her fingers as she looked to the floor.

“So, Haruka… You’re dating Otoya now, is that correct?” asked Masato.

“… Yes, I am”

“Huh, I knew it” said Ren smirking.

“What do you mean ‘you knew it?’ you didn’t know anything” replied Syo imitating Ren’s voice.

“No, I did. You can ask Masa here, he was there with me”

“Is that right Masa-chan?”

Masato muttered angrily “ _Masa-chan?”_ and then replied “Well, to be fair Ren, you just said you had a ‘hunch’, you didn’t say you knew they were dating”

“But wasn’t my hunch right?”

“Well, maybe but-” Ren interrupted him.

“Exactly. I was right. End of story. I’m always right” he said victoriously.

Haruka couldn’t help but laugh at the discussion they were having causing them all to join in because of her infectious laughter. When the laughter died down and they could all breath again, Haruka said: “Thank you for understanding guys, you are really good friends” and smiled brightly. They all smiled back, slightly blushing. She thought she was at peace once again, but she couldn’t help but wonder what Ringo could be doing to Otoya. She hoped he wasn’t being too mean but she was still very thankful at her teacher for protecting and defending her so much that day. She didn’t know how important he was to her until now; he was truly a wonderful friend. And that made her think about Tomo-chan, she should tell her about recent events (‘ _or else she would get angry like she did the last time’_ ). ‘ _I should call before it gets too late’_ she thought as she excused herself out of the room.

When she was far enough she took her phone out and dialed her friend’s phone, but no one seemed to pick up. After her second try she realized that Tomochika’s phone had been turned off so she just decided to text her: ‘Hi Tomo-chan! I want to talk to you J please call me back when you can >.<’.  As she was making her way back to the living room she heard some very loud voices. It seemed as they were fighting over something. A voice in the back of her head told her to ignore it, that it wasn’t her business and that she should head back but she just couldn’t, and well: curiosity killed the cat. She walked closer to the voices and noticed they were coming from a nearby room so she just decided to stand close to the door and listen for a moment. It couldn’t hurt anyone, could it?


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Uta no Prince-sama or any of its characters.

Otoya followed Ringo into the music room down the hallway of the living room. He was a bit skeptical as to what to expect given that the last actual conversation they had had been over the phone and it didn’t really end well.

After the teacher closed the door, he gestured for the redhead to sit in a chair nearby.

“I am guessing you know why we’re here” the pink haired man said.

“Um… This is about Haruka, right?”

“You could say so, yes” he glared at Otoya giving him chills and then continued talking “Do you love her?”

“Oh- Of course I do!”

“Don’t get excited, I’m not over” he said putting a hand up “Can you keep it in your pants?”

Upon hearing that, Otoya blushed practically purple “I-I wh-what does that me-mean?”

“By your reaction I’m pretty sure you know what it means, but I’ll play the fool anyways: It means if you can… umm… how do I say this? oh yes, can you repress your sexual desire for sweet Haru-chan?”

At that point he was blushing so much he was afraid all the blood in his body had went to his head. But Ringo was actually expecting an answer so gathering all the courage he could muster, he replied “I-I ye-yes, o-of course”

The pink haired man looked at him for a moment that felt like forever and then said “Okay, let’s say I believe you, because honestly I already got in too deep in something that shouldn’t be (but thanks to you kind of is) my business. But if I see Haruka-chan crying over you again…” he got threateningly close to Otoya and finished “I will give you a memory to never forget. That is if you get out of it alive because you may not know this honey but I know more about you than yourself. Understand?” then he got away from the boy (that just nodded shakily in response) and happily said “Glad we had this conversation sweetie!” He walked all the way to the door and slammed it open. But it didn’t make a normal ‘door against the air sound’ it sounded like it hit something… or someone. Ringo moved outside and saw Starish’s songwriter on the floor.

“Oh my God! Haru-chan!” Upon hearing that, Otoya ran all the way outside and quickly kneeled beside her.

“What happened?”

“I… I don’t know, I opened the door a bit too hard and I think I hit her…”

“…We should take her to the infirmary”

“No, wait. Maybe she has a concussion or something. I’ll go get a doctor, you stay here with her. Don’t move her”

“But-” he was interrupted.

“No buts, I’ll be right back” and with that he ran off.

Otoya didn’t know what to do, he was trying not to panic so he just decided to look at her and see if she had any injury on her face. As far as he could tell she just had a big bruise on her forehead which on the Brightside could be seen as just a bruise but as Ringo said, she could have a concussion so he was right in not moving her. He thought for a moment about telling the rest of the guys but he just knew they would all make him panic, he had enough with his own worries and the teacher couldn’t take too long to come back.

Suddenly Haruka moved her head making a pained noise, it seemed as she was waking up.

“Haruka?” he asked in a worried tone.

“O-Otoya? Wha- oh, my head” she said putting one of her hands on her forehead.

“Hey, be careful. You just hit your head against a door pretty hard, try not to move too much”

“Wha- How did I do that?”

“I’m honestly wondering that myself, but let’s talk about this later, the doctor might be coming any second”

She groaned and replied “I feel like I was run over by a truck”

He instinctively took hold of her free hand and said sweetly “You’ll be okay, you’ll see” She squeezed his hand with all the force she could muster and smiled slightly at him before losing consciousness again.

Just as the redhead was about to get freak out completely, Ringo alongside a doctor and a couple of nurses rounded the corner.

 

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**_The next day (10:30 a.m.) ~_ **

 

A warm light was coming from the window nearby; on the distance different kinds of birds could be heard making a wonderful coordinated harmony to the rhythm of nature. She slowly opened her eyes as a throbbing headache attacked her again. As she put her hands to cover the pained area she realized that she had a big bandage on her forehead and for some reason that made her feel better. She was happy though because even through the pain, for the first time in days she could safely say that she had actually slept more than enough. As her eyes adapted to the light in the room, she heard someone knock on the door quietly (she was really thankful for that, had they knocked harder she didn’t know if she could’ve taken that much of a headache) and only then she realized she wasn’t actually in her room. She had barely been in this room before, but judging by the whiteness and disinfectant smell of it all, she guessed it was the infirmary room. Thinking about this, she forgot to answer whoever wanted to come in. That didn’t seem to be a problem given that the unknown person opened the door anyways. Thankfully it was Otoya, he looked much better than he did the day before. ‘ _I hope I can say the same for myself’_ Haruka thought.  

He smiled seeing her awake and said “Good morning sleeping beauty”. The redhead was carrying a tray full of food.

“Mmm… Good morning” He walked all the way to her bed and sat in it putting the tray in the nightstand nearby.

“How did you sleep?”

“Like a rock” she giggled and then made a pained expression “Ouch, my head”

“… You should be careful for a while. The doctor said you just had a mild concussion but still… The pain should be gone in no time though so don’t worry too much about it”

“… Just a mild concussion? Then why did I pass out? It doesn’t sound really serious…”

“Yeah… It’s not… He said that maybe you got scared and you just lost it…”

“But I wasn’t really scared… I think?”

“Yes… Well… He said it was probably a subconscious thing so…”

After that they went silent for a moment: Haruka was processing the information she was given and Otoya was thinking what he could say or do in the situation.

“So… Ummm…” he saw the tray once again and remembered why he was there in the first place “Oh, I brought you some food. I guessed you might be hungry given that you haven’t eaten anything since yesterday”

At the mention of food her stomach growled loudly making her blush as she replied “Thank you”

He smiled and said “No problem. Umm… I cooked this myself so I hope it’s not too bad” He had made waffles (with cream and honey), apple tea and a couple of chocolate muffins. To make the tray look better he added a sweet little bouquet of flowers (sunflowers and white roses) that he had taken from the garden. She stared in awe at the wonderful presented meal for a little too long which made him think she didn’t like it. “… I’m sorry… You’re such a better cook than me… I couldn’t really find a decent recipe book so I had to ask Masa for help…” he looked embarrassed at the ground and then finished “… Don’t blame him though… he just told me what to do, I was the one that did it wrong…” Otoya felt so embarrassed he was avoiding looking at her as he blushed deeply.

She couldn’t help but smile warmly at him and say “Otoya-kun, look at me” he slowly lifted his head still blushing and got surprised at the sight of her smiling “… I can’t thank you enough for making this for me. And honestly: the fact that you asked for help and cooked me all of this just warms my heart” he was blushing for completely different reasons now but she didn’t know that so she just continued “You are not a bad cook, I know that. We cooked together, remember? I’m not gonna lie and say that you are Hijirikawa-san level of cooking but you are pretty decent” she giggled and felt a pang of pain again in her head so she just finished “You are very good, I mean it”

Hearing that, he couldn’t help but smile as he gently stroked her cheek. “You know I love you, but you shouldn’t say my food is good before trying it” he said giggling. Then he placed the tray on her lap and gave her a look as if saying “ _Let’s see who wins”_

She smiled mischievously and took a bite of the waffles. She was so hungry she couldn’t take it anymore, she muttered between bites “Thish ish really goosh”(This is really good) making him laugh. In twenty minutes the only thing left was some tea and the flowers (she was embarrassed to even think that for a moment she considered eating those too). She wiped her mouth with a napkin, drank some tea and then repeated in a much understandable voice “That was really good! I mean it”

He smiled and replied “You know, I could say that you’re only saying that because when you are hungry you don’t really care about what you eat but I’ll let you win this one”

“Thank you” she took another sip and then said “I love you”. Then she put the teacup back in the nightstand as he put the rest of the tray too. After that, he leaned in closer to her and gave her a sweet kiss. Shortly after she kissed back, he pulled away and said “I love you too” smiling. He caressed her cheek again before kissing her one last time and pulling away for good.

Now that he wasn’t as close to her, she could actually have comprehensive thoughts so she said “Where is everyone?”

He sighed and said “Well… After what happened yesterday things got a little complicated…”

“… What do you mean?”

“… Umm… Where do I start?”

“… You can always start from the beginning”

“Yeah, well… Okay, whatever… The thing is that right after we –as in me and Ringo-san- left you in the infirmary…”

 

**_Flashback~_ **

****

Otoya walked out of the infirmary accompanied by Ringo with a worried expression on his face.

“Come on boy, the doctor said it’s nothing serious. She’ll be just fine tomorrow, you’ll see”

He looked down and said “I know… But she’s still hurt… And it’s because of me again…”

“Huh? I hit her with the door… In the best case scenario she did it to herself for being right behind it… I wonder why…”

“Eh? Are you saying she was listening to our conversation?”

“Well it seemed like it honey, I don’t know that many people that just decide to stand outside a door for no reason”

They stayed silent thinking about what happened for a moment when Otoya remembered something “Oh no”

“What is it?”

“… We have to tell the guys about this”

“… Crap”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Uta no Prince-sama or any of its characters.

**_Continuation of the flashback ~_ **

 

They ran into Tokiya in the hallway on their way back to the living room.

“Oh, Otoya. I’ve been looking for you. Do you know where Nanami-san is?”

The redhead looked sadly at his friend, but before he could reply Ringo said “Tokiya-kun, why don’t you gather everyone in the living room: we have some news for you”

 

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Once everyone had gathered in the chosen room, Ringo cleared his throat and started talking “You see boys, something not so good happened a few moments ago… As you all may know I was having a private conversation with Otoya-kun here” Everyone nodded at that “So… We finished talking and I decided to open the door to get out of the room… I opened it with a little too much strength and…” He made a long pause just for dramatic purposes making Syo almost rip off his own skin and then “I hit Haruka-chan with the door”

“Eh?!” was everything the boys could mutter.

Then Syo spoke up “What happened to her?!”

“I was just getting there, thank you” said Ringo angrily “… Anyways, Haruka hit her head pretty badly” seeing everyone’s worried looks he quickly added “But the doctor said she just has a mild concussion. She’ll be fine tomorrow… She just won’t be able to do much physical effort for a while but it’s not like she did any…” he finished giggling. His giggles couldn’t lift up the horrible tense mood that had taken over the room though so when he stopped the atmosphere grew uncomfortable.

“Can we see her?” asked Tokiya.

“Boys, she’s sleeping. I’m telling you, she’s perfectly fine, really. You don’t need to worry. Now: go take a shower, dinner will be up in no time. I’ll be here tomorrow and I hope nobody does anything crazy tonight, okay?” he looked directly at Syo as he said that.

Syo muttered “Fine” as everyone else nodded and with that, Ringo left the building.

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 The second Ringo closed the door the boys started bombarding Otoya with questions.

“Is she really okay?” asked Tokiya.

“What were you two talking about?” asked Syo.

“What happened between you and Nanami-san today?” asked Masato.

“How the heck did you two start dating in the first place?” asked Ren.

“When are you breaking up?” asked Cecil.

“Why do you look so pale?” asked Natsuki.

They were about to start their second row of questions when Otoya yelled “SHUT UP!” They all went silent at that so after a deep breath he continued “Listen, today was a REALLY long day and I would appreciate it if you guys could help me out a little here” they just looked at him expectantly so he finished “I’ll answer all of your questions but just don’t yell and please ask one at a time” They didn’t even think about what to do next, they just raised their hands as if they were in school waiting for the teacher to call them. He just randomly picked someone with his eyes closed: unfortunately he picked Cecil.

“I repeat: when are you two breaking up?”

“… Honestly? I have no idea, but you don’t know how tempted I am to say never…” Cecil grunted and made no further comment on the topic.

The next one was Tokiya: “Ummm… I asked if she _really_ is okay… please don’t sugarcoat it”

“I’m not sugarcoating it dude, she’s honestly fine” his friend still moved to object but everyone convinced him to drop it and just visit Haruka the next day to reassure himself.

Then it came Ren’s turn: “I feel like a little boy. Just for the record this is ridiculous. But, that said, I repeat my question: How the heck did you two start dating in the first place?”

“Ummm… okay, long story short: for some reason we almost kissed last night but Reiji was there so he interrupted us and told us not to break the rules and then anyways Haruka confessed to me and of course I feel the same way so we went to talk to the principal and here we are” he finished breathing heavily after that mouthful of words.

“Huh, I didn’t know The Little Lamb was so forward…” he said thoughtfully.

“…Don’t even think about it” replied Otoya defensively.

Ren smirked and said “And what exactly are you gonna do about that?” The redhead gave his friend a look full of so much rage as in a “ _Don’t test me”_ kind of manner although internally he just felt incredibly disappointed in his older bandmate. “Ah, come on Ikki, did you really think that only because you are dating The Little Lamb all of our feelings for her would disappear? ‘cuz if you did, that is really naïve of you”

“I did not” he replied angrily “I just… didn’t think about it okay?”

“It’s perfectly fine, but as a friend I feel inclined to warn you that as much as I respect you, if she asks me to be with her now I wouldn’t even hesitate my answer”

“…But hey! What about the pact?” Syo asked.

“Eh? What pact?” said Otoya.

“Earlier we made a pact (an actual signed on paper pact) to agree not to date Haruka unless everyone in the band is okay with it. Of course, we made this because we all clearly have a… let’s say feelings for her and we wouldn’t want that to get in the way of our friendship or work” explained Masato.

“Oh” muttered the redhead.

“Yeah… But really guys, are you gonna tell me that if she asked you out today before replying her you would ask everyone to gather up and ask if it’s okay? No, you wouldn’t because: a) No one would be okay with it (not completely that is) and b) As much as you care about your friends you wouldn’t want the opportunity to slip through your fingers. This is the ugly truth guys”

“Then why did you agree to the pact?” asked Tokiya.

“Just because. You were all so excited like little kids about it and I didn’t really have the heart to crush your dreams at the moment, I just wanted to have a coffee and take a nap, I was tired”

“So you lied yet again” said Masato.

They all started arguing then about the pact, their friendship, Ren’s lies and it just spiraled down from there.

An hour later they were still at it, yelling at each other and raising their voices to prove how wrong the other was. The only one that stood on the sidelines was Natsuki. Maybe because he usually repressed every emotion that didn’t make him look cute, maybe because he didn’t want to force his voice or maybe ‘cuz he cared too much about his friends to fight them like that. Whatever it was, he just couldn’t get into the discussion. This didn’t really seem to be going anywhere except for making every single guy aphonic and unable to perform later so he tried to interrupt them walking a little closer and moving his hands up in the air, to tell them to stop, that there was no point in fighting. That was when hell was unleashed. It turns out that Ren quickly took a couple of steps backwards pushing Natsuki to the ground and breaking his glasses in the process: Satsuki was back.

Satsuki quickly stood back up and punched a very surprised Ren directly on the face. This would’ve been bad enough but right afterwards, Ren punched back. He was angry enough already and he didn’t really have the energy to deal with Natsuki’s personality problem (otherwise known as Satsuki). In no time all the other boys stopped arguing just to try and stop the fight but that only made it worse. Every time they got close to break them apart they would either get kicked or punched. They needed someone to stop them; at this rate someone would seriously get injured.

Ten minutes later the fight was still ongoing, Satsuki had a black eye and Ren’s chin was full of bruises. They would get in so much trouble… Ren’s injuries could easily be covered up with makeup but Satsuki was another story… And this is not to count that Syo had a gigantic cut on his face (Satsuki had pushed him away making him fall, and given how lucky the poor blonde is: he fell over Natsuki’s glasses) and all the other boys had at least one bruise in their arms or faces.

This, of course, was the perfect time for the senpais to come through the doors.

After they passed the initial shock, they got extremely angry too. After all: whatever those boys did was under their responsibility.

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!” yelled Ranmaru.

Ren got distracted by this allowing for Satsuki to punch him and push him to the ground repeatedly beating him then.

At the sight of this, the senpais ran towards the fighting couple and pushed them away (getting a couple too many hits in the process).

Syo came back running then (he had gone to the infirmary to get some stitches) with some glasses that were forced into Satsuki’s face.

“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!” yelled Ranmaru once again. They all stayed silent in response.

Ren gestured to his face as if saying that he needed some medical attention but Ranmaru still said “Listen pretty boy, I don’t care if your face gets disfigured, I just want to know what happened and then you can leave. But until then, you’re gonna have to suck it up”

“Wh-what happened?” Natsuki asked.

“That is exactly what I’m asking four eyes… well, more like 3 now” Ranmaru said gesturing to Natsuki’s black eye.

Tokiya stepped forward and said “We may have had a bit of a… disagreement”

“That’s an understatement” replied Camus.

“Well um…” Tokiya tried to continue but Otoya stepped forward and muttered “ _no, let me handle this”_

The redhead cleared his throat and said “Umm… So, we were discussing a little personal problem that kind of made us get a little heated and… well, Ren took a step back making Natsuki fall and break his glasses and when that happens… he gets kind of aggressive”

“… I… Do?” asked Natsuki.

“Yes, you do” replied Syo.

“Okay then, what were you ‘discussing’ about? If you may be so kind as to fill us in” asked Reiji.

Otoya blushed a little and said “The fact that I’m dating Haruka”

Reiji looked stupefied for a moment and then replied “WHAT? AFTER I TOLD YOU NOT TO? WHAT THE- WHY?!”

“… Well… We asked the principal and he said it was okay so…”

“He did? Wow” Reiji replied.

“So, let me get this straight: you were all fighting over a girl. And she, for the record is your songwriter” Ranmaru said and then sighed.

“Yep… yeah... I guess you could say that…” they all replied in unison.

“I can’t believe this. I am so disappointed in you guys; I thought that after all this trouble with Heavens and whatnot you would’ve been closer… I guess I was wrong” said Reiji.

“I’m sorry” they all replied in unison in a low voice.

“Well, ‘sorry’ isn’t gonna solve anything” then he looked at Ren and said “You go to the infirmary right now: the boys one… yes, there are two and no, don’t play the fool and ‘for mistake’ go into the ladies one. Natsuki-kun, you too”

“Masato, Syo: you two go with these dumbasses” said Ranmaru.

After they walked out Ai talked: “My data tells me that with fights like this, it’s very probable this band won’t last much longer”

“Yeah, well. That’s pure logic” said Camus and then he added “Aijima, come with me, I’m going to give you so much work you won’t even talk for days” Cecil grunted in response and followed his senpai.

“This is not my problem Reiji, I’m gonna take a nap” said Ranmaru as he walked out followed by Ai.

That way, the only people left in the room were Reiji, Otoya and Tokiya.

“So… boys… What did you learn today?”

“… That I should’ve stayed in bed?” said Otoya.

“Nope”

“That you shouldn’t stand behind a door?” said Tokiya

“Umm… What?”

“Well, you see… Haruka is in the girl’s infirmary ‘cuz she got hit by a door” explained Otoya.

“Oh”

Awkward silence enveloped the room then. So Reiji just said “You boys should all be friends and happy and just… try not to fight again okay? This opportunity you have is only given once in a lifetime and seeing you waste it it’s just…”

“We’re honestly sorry, I guess it’s just our hunger and fatigue making us fight” said Tokiya.

“I really hope so… We’ll continue this tomorrow okay? Now go eat something”

**_End of Flashback ~_ **

 

“Wow, that was really intense” said Haruka.

“Yeah… It really was”

“So umm… How are Jinguji-san and Shinomiya-san?”

“Oh, you don’t wanna see them… They look like they were attacked by bees” he laughed.

“That’s horrible”

“Yeah, it is. But they’re okay… They are ‘grounded’ though (whatever that means in this situation). Ranmaru and Ai weren’t really nice to them if I may say…”

“… What are they doing?”

“Oh, you’ll see. It’s pretty hilarious if you’re not actually them so…”

They grew silent after that so Haruka asked: “So… Are you guys still fighting at each other?”

Otoya sighed and replied “Um… Not really? I guess… I don’t know, the only person I talked to today apart from you was Masato and yesterday we were so silent during dinner that I wouldn’t really know…”

Haruka looked sad as she said “Maybe we shouldn’t have done this…”

“… What do you mean?”

“Well, I mean that since we started dating… everything seems so be a problem… We fight, all of you fight… Maybe ‘us’ is not a good idea…”

“What? No, don’t say that. It’s just… a conflict of opinions. You’ll see, we’ll work this out, you just need to give it time”

“Well, I don’t know… We’ve only been dating for a day and you already physically fought with each other? I don’t see how more time could fix this…”

Otoya was desperate now: “No no, come on Haruka, you know it’ll be okay. Everything was fine with them when we were both there, remember?”

“Yeah… But if you all started punching each other the moment I’m gone I don’t think that everything was actually fine…”

“Haruka…”

“No, it’s okay… I’m not breaking up with you, don’t worry… I don’t think I can… It’s just… I don’t want everyone’s dreams to get crushed just because I love you so much”

Otoya got closer to her, pecked her sweetly on the cheek and as he pulled away he whispered “You’ll see everything will be just fine. You just have to believe. We really are good friends, I’m sure that a little fight won’t change that”

Hearing that she whispered back “I really hope so…” as she grimaced and leaned in his hand.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Uta no Prince-sama or any of its characters.

After Otoya left the infirmary he decided to pay Shining a visit. He just felt it was really weird how the crazy principal hadn’t been popping out of nowhere lately.

As he got to the office, he noticed the door was open so he just walked in. To his surprise, it seemed his boss was nowhere to be seen.

He felt like leaving but something told him to stay. Maybe it was curiosity, or maybe… destiny?

The redhead walked all the way up to the principal’s desk and casually sat in his chair ‘ _Huh, what a view’_ he thought looking out the windows behind him. As he looked back at the desk, he found a lot of papers all over it ‘ _Oh look, he actually does some paperwork’_ he thought giggling. He opened one of the drawers out of sheer curiosity noticing that it had a little lock to it ‘ _Maybe you can close it with a key? Why would he leave it open then?’_ In it where more papers but Otoya decided to pay more attention to them this time even though he thought ‘ _I really shouldn’t be here… And I shouldn’t be doing this either…’_ And then, a particular paper caught his eye. It had his name on it. He just started reading it without giving it a second thought. When he finished, he was shaking ‘ _So that means he… How did Haruka found out?’_ he thought.

The redhead neatly put the papers back in closing the drawer in the process and slowly got up. As he closed the door behind him and walked away ‘ _Should I do something about this? No. Why would I? At least now I know who my anonymous “helper” was… the person that invested money not only in my orphanage but to every school I went to… And for some reason: I still don’t care… I’ll go about it as if nothing has changed, because honestly: it hasn’t’_ was all he thought on his way back to the living room.

The only thing he regretted was the fact that he didn’t know if his friends would be there for him if he needed them. But there was no time to mope, in a couple of hours he needed go back to work, and after what he did the last time it wasn’t likely that they would forgive him for acting absentmindedly again.

 

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After Otoya left her room Haruka had drifted off to sleep again, but after a couple of hours of rest, her cell started ringing. She was so startled she just picked it up and answered “He-hello?” in a really groggy voice without checking the caller ID.

“Haruka? Are you okay? You usually wake up at seven or something…”

“… Tomo-chan?”

“Yes, who else would I be?”

“Oh, I’m sorry… I was just sleeping”

“Yes, I noticed”

“Eh? How?”

“Your voice, silly”

“Oh”

“So, anyways, I just wanted to call you to let you know I’m coming… You called me yesterday right?”

“Oh, yes… Yes, I did…”

“What happened?”

“Ummm… Well the thing is-” Tomochika cut her midsentence.

“Nono, you’ll tell me when I get there. I’m sure there is a reason why morning person Nanami Haruka would be sleeping at 12 pm on a Thursday”

“Yeah… there is…”

“Okay, I’m just a couple of blocks away… I’ll be right up in your room in seconds”

“Oh… I’m not in my room…”

“What do you mean?”

“I… I’m in the infirmary…”

“What? What happened? Nope, don’t answer that. Nevermind… I’ll be right up” and with that she hanged up.

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Haruka heard a soft knock on the door as she finished getting dressed (apparently someone had changed her clothes the night before to some winter pajamas and left her a new outfit next to the bed…  She didn’t want to think about whom) “Come on in” she replied.

Tomochika entered looking slightly surprised and incredibly intrigued at the sight before her. But she didn’t have time to be surprised, she ran all the way to Haruka’s bed and sat next to her “Explain” she said.

After many retellings and ridiculous questions Tomochika seemed to be up to speed in the latest as she called them “ _Haruka’s adventures”_

“So… You’re dating Otoya-kun… That’s nice… I always knew you would end up dating one of them” and then she muttered under her breath “ _But I SO knew that it would be him”_

“Um… Okay?”

“… And then you almost slept with him?”

“…” Haruka looked down embarrassed.

“And afterwards you just… hit your head with a door and passed out…”

“Yeah… sounds about right” she replied still looking down.

“What. A. Day”

They stayed silent for a while then as Haruka awkwardly fidgeted with her thumbs. Then suddenly Tomochika stood up and pointing at her friend, she said: “Listen girl, you need to show those boys who is the boss here!”

“I… What?”

“Yes! Do you want them to fight over you all the time?”

“No! Of course not!”

Tomochika smiled mischievously and said “Then follow my lead” 

 

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The dorms were quite empty by then. All the boys were out working and all the senpais had a recording that day. This left Haruka and Tomochika alone in that gigantic place. The pink haired girl was really glad this was the case because if it weren’t she would’ve been pretty embarrassed about what her friend was telling her.

 

“You know Haruka, I love you to pieces and being cute and all is really nice but if you want this boys to respect your choices you’re gonna have to act tough once in a while”

“… I don’t…”

“Okay okay, I know you’re confused but after today you will be a completely different person!”

Haruka looked sadly at her friend and said “But Tomo-chan, I don’t want to change. I just don’t want them to fight!”

Tomochika sighed and replied “Umm… Okay, how do I put this? Ummm… okay: you know how you always need a little let’s say ‘encouragement’ to believe in yourself and try hard in what you do?”

“… Oh… It’s not like I ‘need’ it-” her friend cut her off.

“But let’s say you do for all intended purposes in this case” Haruka nodded “… I don’t want you to change who you are, I want you to change the _way you act._ So just like you’re telling me now, you don’t need no man to tell you how awesome you are, am I right? So you need to show that confidence, show them you are serious about Otoya and act according to that towards them”

“I don’t… How?”

“That’s what I’m here for!”

“Okay… What do you want me to do?”

Tomochika thought about it for a moment and then said “Picture this: everyone in Starish suddenly confesses to you. What do you do?”

“I… What?”

“Just answer the question”

“Well, I don’t know… I’m already dating Otoya-kun and-” Tomochika cut her off.

“Haruka, that’s not what I’m asking. What do you do if they all confess to you on the same day?”

“Um… Well… I guess I’d have to reject them”

“Yes! Exactly. Now: How would you do that?”

“… I’d try to be as gentle as possible; I don’t want to hurt their feelings…”

“… That is really sweet… BUT: do you think they would still be your friends and members of the band if you did that?”

“I… I don’t know… I’d hope so”

“Just think about it honey”

Haruka closed her eyes then trying to think as clearly as she could but her slight headache was still bothering her. She still tried to imagine the situation though, to think about everyone’s personalities and relationships with each other and about how the outcome of that situation could go.

“I… I think they would”

“Would what?”

“Still be my friends and members of Starish!”

“Okay then. Now that that’s settled, think about the situation you are in now: isn’t agreeing to date one of them pretty similar to rejecting the others? Because if it were coming from someone else maybe I’d think they still have a chance, but you? You would never cheat on your boyfriend”

“Oh… I haven’t thought of that”

“Well now you have. You don’t need to worry about losing them; there is no reason to act like you’re not yourself in a way just to ‘protect’ their feelings… I’m not telling you to make out with your boyfriend in front of them but you shouldn’t be afraid of what they think. What you’re doing is perfectly fine and if they truly love you they would only want the best for you, and I’m sure we both know how happy Smilieface makes you. So you should show them the confident woman that I know you are, don’t hide yourself under a ‘I love everyone equally’ mask ‘cuz you might hurt them and if you do…” she got closer to her friend and in a creepy voice whispered “They’ll eat you aliiiive” Haruka quickly got up terrified and yelped. She regretted that instantly as standing up so fast made her headache worse.

Tomochika giggled and said “But seriously, you need to try to make this work as hard as you do with your songs, understood?”

“I… yes”

 

**o~h~o~h~ **o~h~o~h~** **o~h~o~h~** **o~h~o~h~** **o~h~o~h~** **o~h~o~h~** **o~h~o~h~****

It had been one of those really long days for the members of Starish.

Syo and Natsuki had to record some songs at the studio which made them stay in the place the whole day. It usually would’ve taken three hours tops but the day before there had been an accident in the studio and some of the recording was ruined.

It was a pretty funny sight considering that Natsuki had a black eye patch on his right eye and a monocle on the other one. So if it weren’t for the fact that it was pretty exhausting to sing over and over again the same songs in different tones Syo would’ve been laughing at his friend the whole day (this is not to say that he didn’t try).

“Couldn’t I just wear a contact lens?” asked Natsuki blushing in embarrassment.

“Don’t you remember? Looking ridiculous is a part of your punishment. Besides –he looked at the floor and whispered- I’m not sure a contact has the same effect to hide a certain someone”

“What?”

“No-nothing… we should get back to recording”

“But this is not fair! I don’t even remember punching Ren!”

Syo sighed and replied “Yes, I know. But you did. Come on, it could be worse, man up!”

Natsuki grunted angrily and went back to his microphone to continue with the session.

 

**o~h~o~h~ **o~h~o~h~** **o~h~o~h~** **o~h~o~h~** **o~h~o~h~** **o~h~o~h~** **o~h~o~h~****

Ren had a photoshoot that day so needless to say he had to apologize and ask for a reschedule. His face looked horrendous; he had multiple bruises in his cheeks and even a couple of cuts at his forehead. This is not to count the purple bags under his eyes and other injuries he had in the rest of his body. But he didn’t actually care, before he even got in Starish he would get in fights just to get hurt, he really didn’t care about himself. In a sense he always wanted to attract the ladies but it was a pretty superficial act for him, it didn’t mean anything. But Haruka was different. And once again, things seemed to be falling apart, so his careless attitude was coming back. He knew when he realized how much everyone loved Haruka that this couldn’t possibly end well, but he still hoped for it.

Ranmaru had assigned him to exercise that day. Obviously he wasn’t supposed to (according to the doctors) with all the bruises he had; making any sort of physical effort would only make the pain worse, but the senpai was quite serious about it so he did it anyways. He tried to work out the parts of his body that were better (like his legs) so he jogged for a while (even though that made his chest hurt like hell) until he felt numb; both mentally and physically.

When he finished, he went back inside the dorms to hydrate himself and take a warm shower (it was freezing cold outside). He was surprised to find the place so silent; it seemed that everyone else was still out working.

After he showered, he roamed through the halls thinking ‘ _Maybe I went too far…’_ Afterall: he truly cared about his friends and he really didn’t want Starish to be disbanded. But it seemed that he was a little too possessive of The Little Lamb.

As he walked he found himself at the entrance of the girls’ dorm and without thinking it twice, he walked in.

Not too far away he could hear giggling. He guessed it must’ve been Haruka so he just kept walking in the direction of the sounds.

He found himself standing at the pink haired girl’s door. For some reason he felt himself freeze. He couldn’t lift his arm to knock; he just stood there for the longest time frozen, speechless. ‘ _What the hell am I doing? Move your arm dumbass!’_ he thought to himself. But it didn’t matter how much he told himself it was not big deal, that she would just open the door and smile at him: he couldn’t do it. And the worst part was that he couldn’t even bring himself to think about why he couldn’t do it. If he thought about it that would make the reasons real and he didn’t want that. But he couldn’t walk away either. Some part of himself was brave enough to be there but not to the point of actually doing something about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Yes, i called Otoya- Smilieface XD


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So umm... i don't know how this happened but to all you Ren lovers out there: This is a Ren centric chapter! XD I really don't understand how this happened giving that i don't even like Ren that much but oh well... XD
> 
> Oh, and also: there is a little tiny reference to Pride and Prejudice on this chapter :P
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Uta no Prince-sama or any of its characters.

After what seemed like an eternity, the door opened. Being incredibly surprised as she saw him, Tomochika screamed and pushed Ren to the ground closing the door quickly afterwards.

It hurt to fall yet again but at least this brought him back to reality. He got up just in time for the red haired girl to open the door again.

“What the hell are you doing here?! You scared me!” she yelled.

“I… Sorry” he didn’t seem like himself, he looked at the ground blushing embarrassed surprising both girls with his attitude “I just… I was about to knock and… Sorry… I didn’t mean to frighten you”

“Um… It’s okay, no big deal… Are you okay?” Tomochika asked.

“Eh? Yes, it was just a little fall, it’s nothing compared to yesterday”

The redhead stared at him for a moment and then said “Are you sure? You seem… different”

“Different? How?”

“… Oh… I… I don’t really know… It’s just a feeling”

“Ummm… Okay…”

After that they stayed in awkward silence for a while. Haruka just couldn’t stop looking at the bruises in his face and even though he would normally appreciate some female attention (specially coming from her) this time it made him feel quite uncomfortable. He found the whole situation really bizarre: why would he feel anything but flattered if a lovely lady looked at him?

“… I thought you would be working Jinguji-san” said Haruka trying to break the ice.

Ren just stared at her for a moment trying to figure out what she just said and what he was doing before completely freezing at her doorstep and then replied “I… No, I’m not”

“… Yes, I can see that…” she replied.

That made them silent once again but this time Ren thought ‘ _For God’s sake this is ridiculous!’_ and metaphorically slapping himself he said “Sorry, I just… I had a photoshoot and looking like this is not really what the photographer had in mind for the ads”

“Oh… I see”

“So what are you doing here anyways pretty boy? Coming to Haruka’s room when no one’s around?” Tomochika quickly asked.

“Jealous, my lady?” Ren asked.

“What? In your dreams” she said matter-of-factly. Then she turned to her friend and said “Look Haruka, I have to go. Can you handle this womanizer on your own?” That made Ren scoff.

Haruka looked at him for a moment and then back at her friend and said “Yeah, I’m fine, see you later”

“See ya” and as she walked away she turned around and looking at Ren she said “Don’t try anything funny on my friend, I’m watching you”

They were left alone then so after a couple of minutes Haruka asked “Do you want to come in?” gesturing towards her room.

“Oh, yes. That would be nice, thank you Lady”

As they got in Ren settled for sitting on the bed and Haruka for one of her desk chairs.

“Wouldn’t you feel more comfortable on the bed, Lady?”

This made Haruka blush as she stuttered her answer “N-no, it’s fine here”

“Really? Then I can sit there and you sit on the bed”

“No, really, I’m perfectly fine here… I’ll just move my chair closer to you and it’ll be just fine” she said as if talking to herself.

When she got close enough, she looked up at him expectantly, waiting for him to start talking.

He took a deep breath and said “Listen, I have no clue why I even came here in the first place my dear Little Lamb but I do know I’ll take advantage of as much time as I have alone with you” he finished winking.

Haruka looked at him sadly and said “Jinguji-san…” This intrigued him deeply since he found no reason for her to be anything but glad to receive his full attention.

“What is it, Lady?”

“I… I’m worried about you… Otoya-kun told me what you did yesterday and by looking at the scars on your face I can gather you didn’t disinfect them really well today… Are you okay? You know you can trust me”

He smiled and replied “Such a sweetheart, always worrying about everyone else. But there is no need, I am a perfectly grown man and I can take care of myself”

Haruka realized that no matter how bad he needed to open up she had to find a way to get it out of him discreetly; he was too prideful for his own good. So she changed the topic slightly, taking a different approach on the subject.

“… So, umm… Jinguji-san… How is your brother? It’s been a while since we met him”

The sudden change of topics surprised him but he went along anyways “He’s… good… We met last week for lunch… I think we may go on vacation together if all is well”

“Oh, I’m so glad to hear that!” she said smiling brightly. This made him blush a little and also shut him up. He was feeling like a little schoolgirl, blushing and being nervous. He usually didn’t do that, not even with Haruka. But he could barely control his emotions that day. His jealousy, anger and sorrow had taken over his body and there were moments he could do nothing but stand back and watch himself make yet another mess of a perfectly fine situation.

“So… What were you doing this morning? Seeing as you didn’t go to work today” she asked.

“… I just went out jogging, honey” he decided to distract himself by using various nicknames for her as they talked.

“… That sounds… painful… Shouldn’t you have been resting this morning just like me?”

“Nah, resting is for…” he looked at her before finishing the sentence and realized that what he was about to say wasn’t really nice so he changed it and finished “… people with more serious injuries. Not me, I just got a few punches, no big deal”

“Well it does look like a big deal, you look awful!” he looked hurt hearing that so she quickly added “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean-” he cut her off.

“No, it’s okay… I looked at myself in the mirror this morning… But I don’t really care you know. If I had a recording today, this wouldn’t have been a problem at all… It’s really no big deal, I’m a tough guy and I’ll manage”

“… Are you sure? I mean, I’m not going to question your… manliness? But you shouldn’t be so careless about your body…”

“I AM PERFECTLY FINE!” he yelled suddenly standing up. He was furious and his rage was blinding him so it took a couple of moments before he could realize the scared look Haruka had. “I-I’M…” he noticed that he couldn’t stop yelling and he didn’t want to hurt her so he just said “I SHOULD GO, SORRY!” and started walking towards the door.

What he didn’t realize was that Haruka run after him (getting herself a really strong headache in the process) so when she grabbed his hand and turned him around he was incredibly surprised.

“Jinguji-san…” she just said in a worried tone keeping her hand attached to his.

He opened his mouth as if to tell her to let go but he just broke down. He started crying silently and then leaned in on her shoulder. He kept muttering “I’m so sorry” over and over against her to which she replied to every single time: “I know”

Ren didn’t want this to happen, he never did. He had promised himself when he was little that no one would ever see him cry, he couldn’t show that kind of weakness. So he put on a careless facade and after his father died he actually started to believe that the mask was actually his personality; that the flirty boy with a passion for roses and a cool attitude was the real him. And in a way he could say that he really liked roses, women and even liked to flirt. But that was not his whole self. He had started paying attention to women because he felt a need to be loved, he thought no one cared about him and seeing as he got so many compliments when he was little he just thought that maybe _someone could actually love him_ that way _._ So he learned some easy pick up lines, dressed up in fancy clothes and in a matter of seconds he had a bunch of ladies attached to him like bees to honey. But he still didn’t feel anything, it was all superficial, they just cared about his looks, about the persona he had made himself to be, so all that work was just for nothing. He felt empty, numb. So he tried to think about the last time he had truly enjoyed himself and a sweet memory flashed before his eyes: that time he and Masato had sneaked out of one of those boring extravagant parties and had fun on their own. He remembered that it felt nice to laugh with someone, but they were rivals now, he had to act the part. So when his brother told him he had to represent the company with his image he decided to follow his old “friend”. He had heard that the blue haired boy was going to attend the Saotome Academy and given how good he was at music he decided to follow him, ‘just for laughs’ he said to himself. Of course, he made his brother think as if he had been the one that had the idea of attending the academy, but truth be told, he could’ve gone somewhere else. That was where he learnt to care about others again, but most importantly: to actually care about himself, not just pretend. He made some friends and he actually fell in love. But now with Haruka dating one of them, his once strong structure seemed to be trembling. He didn’t want to lose anything; he just wanted everything to go back. He didn’t care about how long he had to bottle up his love for her or how long everyone else had to; he just wanted all of them to be friends. ‘Why did they all have to fall in love with her? Why couldn’t she just be _his_?’ This was all he could think about. He had promised not to make any moves until she was overage but it seemed that in his confident move he didn’t realize someone was already taking the lead in the quest for her heart. How dare Otoya ruin his whole perfect plan?

He was just so confused. He didn’t want to fight them. He just wanted to be punished for what he thought. He felt it was only fair for them to punch him after how ill he had been thinking about them.

And he hated change. He hated it when his mother died (even though he could barely remember when she was alive), he hated it when his father passed out too and he hated it the most when he was practically forced to attend a boarding music school just so his brother could take the prize. Of course this last one turned out to be not that bad and his brother was just looking to help him be happy again, but that still didn’t change how horrible he had felt. And yet again things seemed to be changing and he didn’t like it not one bit. So he embraced Haruka, he hugged her tightly as he silently cried, letting himself be weak at least for that one moment.

Haruka on the other hand couldn’t help but think about what Tomochika had told her. She had to show her confidence to help these guys, they truly needed her for reasons beyond her understanding and she didn’t want them to feel useless or unwanted just because she was dating one of them. These boys were the most attractive bunch of gentleman she had ever had the chance to meet and still they felt like they weren’t worth it if she wasn’t in love with them? It just sounded ridiculous, so gathering up her courage Haruka decided to give poor broken Ren a piece of composer wisdom.

She slightly pulled away giving him a napkin to dry his face as she started “Jinguji-san… You shouldn’t feel this way. You’re an outstanding man, you have a wonderful voice and you have so many people that love you for _who you are_ … And we worry, we don’t want you to lose yourself, you’re special”

“… Yeah, well… Not special enough for you it seems” he said between deep breaths as he tried to calm himself down.

“Don’t say that! I may not be _in love_ with you but I do love you and I can guarantee that you will find a girl just right for you”

“But I don’t want any other girl, I want _you”_

She sighed and said “I know you do, but you can’t have me. Like you told me before: you’re not a little boy, you’re a ‘tough guy’ and you should respect my decision to date Otoya-kun”

“…” he looked sadly at the ground.

“Listen, I know it’s hard but I also know that you’re already aware of the fact that _you can’t have everything you want in life_. And I don’t want you to feel like you don’t matter, because you do! I really care about you and I don’t want you to feel this way. I’m sure nobody else does either! Why can’t you see that?”

He took a deep breath and replied “Little Lamb, I know you’re trying to help but when I set my mind to get something or someone… I _always_ get it… I appreciate the effort though”

She roughly pushed him away with an angered look on her face (an attitude he had never seen before) and in a somewhat desperate somewhat furious tone, she replied “I. Don’t. Love. You. That. Way. Can’t you please respect my wishes? I’m in love with Otoya-kun, I really am and as far as I know I plan to stay with him! So please understand me when I tell you that _you_ _need to move on!_ ” She felt that what she said was a bit too hurtful so she quickly covered her mouth but she was just so angry she couldn’t find another way to let him know her feelings.

For some reason he didn’t seem to be paying that much attention to the words she said but to the attitude attached to them. And he found that attitude quite arousing. So needless to say without thinking twice he quickly leaned in for a kiss. But before his lips could reach hers he made a sudden stop. He opened his eyes and saw how strongly she had closed hers. It was as if she was afraid he would… rape her or something among those lines. And that was when it hit him: she didn’t want him _at all_. She just saw him as a friend (a really sexy friend that is). And this time he actually got the full picture of the situation: he was forcing himself on her. So he quickly pulled away as she opened her eyes no longer feeling his breath on her face and said “I am very sorry, truly” Before she could properly reply he bowed as if to fully express his regret.

“… I… You are?”

“Yes, you were right. I should respect your wishes and if what you want is for me not to make any more advances towards you, I understand”

Still confused she replied “I… Really?”

“Yes… I’m sorry for being so forward… I just… I didn’t want love to slip through my fingers again this time and I think I held on too tight… I do hope you can forgive my foolishness… I didn’t mean to cause you any harm… or anyone for that matter”

“I… It’s okay… I’m glad you understand… Thank you” she said smiling relieved.

“No, thank you” he said smiling back.

Then she realized something “Oh… But… what about the guys?”

He thought about it for a moment and then replied grimacing “I’ll have to apologize to them too for acting like such a douche lately”

They stayed in pleasant silence for a while and then Ren said “I’m really sorry for acting like such a baby… I don’t know what went into me…”

“It’s okay… It really is, I understand…” she said sweetly.

“So… All is well?”

“All is well”

And with that he gave her a quick hug and started walking out.

“Wait, where are you going?” she asked.

“Oh… to the infirmary. I better get this cuts cleaned. See you later Little Lamb, it was nice talking to you… Sorry if I drenched your dress” he said smirking as he walked away.

She smiled brightly in response and replied “See you” just in time for him to hear before closing the door.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Uta no Prince-sama or any of its characters.

Haruka hadn’t allowed herself to be really hopeful about the future lately but after the conversation she had with Ren she actually thought that maybe one day they could all look back to the moment she and Otoya started dating with a smile. That maybe all this pain was worth it. That it would help them mature, become better versions of themselves. So she smiled to the air thinking about all the weight on her shoulders that had been taken off and how happy she was about it. She knew that she still needed to talk to all of the guys but the conversation she had feared the most was Ren’s; especially after the fight that had happened the day before.

She looked at her watch and seeing as it was 3 pm already she decided to call her boyfriend, so she took her phone and dialed his number. After a couple of rings, he picked up.

“Hello Haru-chan!” someone replied on the other side.

“Umm… Hello? Who is this?”

“Oh honey, you don’t recognize my voice? It’s Rei-Rei!”

“Rei-Rei? I don’t…” and then it hit her “Oh! Reiji-san!”

“Yes! It’s me!”

“Umm… Can I talk to Otoya-kun?”

“I could put him on speaker but I don’t think you’ll understand a word he says… he’s eating like a monster” he said giggling.

“Oh, I thought he had already finished… It’s 3 pm already afterall…”

“Yeah, well… He had… But then I said something stupid and… Well anyways… He’s having a… let’s say ‘second lunch’”

“Oh…” Before she could add anything else she heard muffled noises coming from the other side. The noises resembled the words “Who is it?” And then she couldn’t listen to Reiji’s reply, she guessed he must’ve covered the phone as he talked.

Suddenly the noises were back but this time she couldn’t even take a guess as to what she could hear and then Reiji said “Umm… Haruka-chan… Otoyan wants to talk to you for a moment, so… talk to you later?”

“Yeah, sure. Goodbye!”

“Bye bye” And with that Otoya picked up.

“Hello! How are you feeling?”

“Hi! I’m good; I still have a little headache but nothing I can’t manage”

“I’m so glad to hear that!” he said and even though she couldn’t see him, she knew by the sound of his voice that he was smiling, she felt herself smile back at that.

“Yeah, I’m happy too”

“… Umm… Listen, I’ll be there in an hour or so? I should be there already but then I just wanted to eat more” he said and then laughed really loudly.

“Okay, take care”

“Of course! How is everything back there?”

“Oh… Things are going smoothly; I’ll tell you more when you get here”

“Oh, I like the sound of that!”

“Yeah, well… How was work today?”

He let out a tired breath and replied “It’s like I don’t even have time to breathe! I had a little comedy sketch to do earlier and then I had to record a song with Reiji-san here… It was pretty tiresome… I guess that’s why I ate so much!”

“Huh… You always eat a lot” she said giggling.

“Hey! I need food to maintain all the energy I usually have!”

“Yeah, yeah… I’m not saying you don’t, I’m just saying you’re the kind of person that if really hungry orders everything in the menu and still has a spot for dessert”

He wanted to make an angry remark but seeing as she had described what he just did he couldn’t help but laugh and reply “You’re right! But I’ve been exercising a lot lately so It’s not like I’m getting fat or anything” he said looking at Reiji with a knowing look.

What happened is that seeing how much he was eating Reiji had decided to play a little prank on Otoya. He told him he was eating too much lately and that if he kept going that way he would surely become fat. At first Otoya tried to deny it but then he realized what the senpai was doing and so he started acting really depressed. He said ‘I failed as an idol!’ and ‘I can’t even take care of my body’ making Reiji think he had gone too far as he checked that Otoya didn’t have a single spot on his body that wasn’t buffed and strong as a wall: the exercise was really paying off. So as he saw his kouhai giggle he realized that the boy was just playing him, to which the boy replied ‘So were you’ and as a form of apology Reiji had to pay for all the food Otoya wanted from his favorite restaurant.

Haruka blushed at the thought of his body and replied “Of course not! Have you seen your muscles?”

He laughed and replied “I know! That’s what I said! When you exercise a lot you need to eat a lot, otherwise it’s unhealthy”

She guessed that something had happened between Reiji and Otoya but decided to ask later as she had been talking on her cellphone for a while now and she didn’t want her battery to go off “So… I’ll see you later?”

“Yes, of course! I’ll see you later… Bye”

“Goodbye… I love you”

“I love you too” he kissed the air and hanged up. As he looked up he saw Reiji making kissing noises as he made fun of him. Otoya just shrugged it off and went back to finish his dessert.

 

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

So much talking about food had made Haruka truly hungry so she decided to go cook herself something.

As she walked towards her door she heard knocking which really surprised her, but she still opened it nonetheless. Outside on the floor was a wonderful tray full of food with a note attached to it. This reminded her of that time while she and all the members of Starish had gone on a little vacation.

The little note said “ _From: Masato; To: Haruka. I hope you rested well, don’t push yourself too hard. Please enjoy this food”_ She couldn’t help but smile at it ‘ _He’s so sweet!’_ she thought. She picked up the tray and walked back to her room.

 

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

As she finished cleaning the dishes after eating, Haruka went straight to the bathroom to check how her forehead looked in the mirror. She was really curious as to how bad it looked.

When she got there she slowly removed the bandage revealing a horribly big purple bruise that had many yellow, red and green circles around it. It looked awful and it still hurt a lot to touch it so she carefully put the bandage back on.

Walking away she couldn’t help but think how weird it was that she stood behind a door to listen to the conversation Ringo and Otoya were having. Why did she do that? It was such a stupid move. But she guessed her curiosity got the best of her again… ‘ _I should seriously think about what I’m going to do just out of curiosity before doing it next time’_ she thought. With that in mind she headed off to her room once again, but before she could move any further the front door opened as her boyfriend came in.

Upon seeing her standing there, he smiled brightly and run towards her, hugging her as he reached her.

“I missed you!” the redhead said.

“I missed you too!” Hearing that, he pulled away and careful not to touch her forehead, he leaned in for a kiss. She didn’t want to wait any longer so she grabbed his shirt and quickly met his lips. As he gladly kissed back the front door opened again and Reiji walked in. When he saw them kissing there he just said “Oh… Teens” and walked away.

The make-out session was getting a bit too steamy, so even though he would’ve gladly continued until the end, Otoya slowly pulled away. He didn’t want a certain event to happen again (and much less giving that they were standing in the middle of the lobby). But as he did, Haruka made a disappointed noise getting closer to him as she tried to get more. He let her kiss him and he actually kissed back again but after not too long he pulled away.

“… Haru-…-ka… no” he said between pecks.

She finally opened her eyes and asked “Why not?”

He took a step back and replied “This is getting a bit out of hand… and we’re in the lobby afterall…”

Haruka looked around and as if it was nothing, she said “You taste like mints”

Otoya blushed a deep shade of red and replied “I… What?”

“… When we kissed” she said blushing slightly.

“Oh… yes… Reiji-san forced me to brush my teeth in his house as well as eat about a dozen mints after lunch…”

“Oh… That’s… nice…”

“Yeah…”

They stayed in silence for a couple of moments then. And after thinking about what they could talk about Haruka remembered their conversation over the phone.

“Oh! I need to tell you what happened while you were gone”

“Oh, right!…”

“Yes, the thing is…” she looked around and decided the topic was a bit too sensitive to discuss in the most transited spot in the dorms so she added “Why don’t you follow me and I tell you in my room?” and then she started walking towards it. Otoya blushed slightly and followed her just nodding in response.

 

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

After getting to her room and closing the door behind them they quietly walked over to the bed and sat next to each other. They were so close their shoulders touched but seeing the snow on the other side of the window just made them glad to feel the other’s warmth.

Before she started talking, Haruka intertwined her fingers with his (giving that their hands were just one next to the other) and blushing lightly she looked him straight in the eye. “So… Ummm… Otoya-kun… I talked to Jinguji-san today”

“Oh? You did? What about?”

“… He wanted to apologize for acting a bit mean-spirited lately… It was a refreshing conversation, I guess you could say”

“Huh, I’m really glad. I thought he was going to challenge me to a duel or something to win your love” he said giggling.

“Haha” she laughed ironically “Come on, he was really heartbroken about the whole thing, you shouldn’t make fun of him”

“Sorry… But to be fair he hasn’t apologized to me yet…”

“Yeah, I know… But he said he would and… You know what? Let’s just forget about it, today has been a wonderful day” she said smiling.

“It really has” he said smiling back.

“So and… For the rest of the day I mostly slept” she said giggling “But then Tomo-chan came to visit, too bad you missed her”

“Oh, it is too bad… Maybe next time? At her concert perhaps”

“Yeah, sounds like a good plan”

Before they could talk about anything else some really loud music started playing making the windows vibrate and a couple of things fell from Haruka’s nightstand.

“What the heck is that?” she asked practically yelling so that Otoya could hear her.

“It sounds like-” he was cut off by both the door and the windows snapping open making the music sound even louder.

Haruka covered her ears trying to avoid the horrible migraine that all the noise could potentially give her but it was all for nothing, the music was too loud. So they walked outside her room and following the noise they went towards the living room. Why did every gathering had to happen there?

When they arrived they saw that every other member of Starish plus the senpais and the teachers was there. But the most noticeable sight in the room was Shining making a really weird dance as he “followed the rhythm” and laughed maniacally. Everyone was covering their ears (except for him) and yelling for him to stop, but it only got worse. Suddenly everything went dark and some colored lights and lasers started to spin around illuminating the principal and his strange dance. It just went down from there. In a matter of seconds some smoke (from a completely invisible smoke machine) appeared and not too long later bubbles went along with it. This was getting too out of hand.

“ _What is the purpose of this?_ ” Was the question on everyone’s minds. And it was (to their relief) answered shortly after. The music’s volume went down just enough to be somewhat of a background sound. Then the lights went on again and the curtains opened.

Before he even explained the situation, Shining laughed like crazy once again. As he calmed down he said “SO, I HAVE AN ASSIGNMENT FOR ALL OF YOU!” he was yelling everything giving that he must’ve gone deaf with all that loud music that was sounding before. “YOU WILL ALL GO IN A TOUR!”

The reactions to that were quite different, some of them (like Natsuki) cheered and some of them (like Camus) angrily said “WHAT?!”

“YOU HEARD ME! BUT THAT IS NOT ALL, NO” he said as he started to laugh again “NO, YOU WILL GO ON A _WORLD TOUR_!” Now he had truly shocked everyone so their response was pretty unanimous.

“WHAT?!” Before Shining could continue to talk about how wonderful his plan was, Tokiya stepped forward and said “But nobody knows us outside of Japan! Heck, they barely know us here!”

“NONSENSE! YOU ARE SOMEWHAT OF A NATIONAL TREASURE HERE AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHY YOU NEED TO WORLD TOUR!” it was quite hilarious that he could listen perfectly fine to what Tokiya said but he still yelled every word he spoke.

“That makes no sense! Shining, what are you doing?!” asked Ringo.

“NO EXCUSES! YOU ARE THE MOST TALENTED BUNCH OF IDOLS FROM MY AGENCY AND YOU NEED TO GET A NAME NOT ONLY FOR YOURSELVES BUT FOR THE ACADEMY AND THE WHOOOOLE COUNTRY! AND WHAT BETTER WAY THAT TO MAKE SOME ADS AND GO ON A WORLD TOUR?!”

“That’s not… Am I going, too?” Ringo asked.

“EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM IS GOING! NO EXCUSES, GOODBYE!” and with that, the music volume went up again as a really thick smoke enveloped the principal as he disappeared out of their sight.

Everyone was too shocked to even say a word; they just stood there as if they had just witnessed a murder. This was exactly what went into Ringo’s mind as he tried to swallow the information that they had just heard ‘ _This could either be a breakout opportunity or the end of every single one of our careers… What is Shining thinking? This is a terrible idea!’_


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Uta no Prince-sama or any of its characters.

After the initial shock passed, everyone sat down almost simultaneously. It seemed that the majority of the people in the room had decided that the most probable scenario to happen was the worst case scenario: losing everything.

But then Masato stood up: “I can’t leave the country for months! My father wouldn’t let me with running the company and all! Besides: My grandfather is very sick and I won’t leave his side for months!”

“ _NO EXCUSES!_ ” said Ringo imitating Shining’s voice.

“But… He can’t just force us to do this… can he?” said Syo.

“… I don’t know honey, you better hire a lawyer and read the fine print of your contract if you wanna get out of this, but I don’t think the boss would like that very much…”

Before he could (or anyone for that matter) protest any further, Otoya stood up and said “Come on guys! It can’t be that bad! We got a ton of viewers even on our debut concert, how bad can it be?”

“HOW BAD CAN IT BE? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? NAME ME ONE JAPANESE BOYBAND THAT WORLD TOURS AND IS FAMOUS WORLD WIDE!” snapped Ranmaru.

“Um… I’m sure we’d have an audience! There are J-pop fans everywhere!”

“Yeah, well… But how do you know they are _our_ fans?” Syo asked.

“I… I don’t know…” Otoya replied, but looking at everyone’s disappointed faces he added “But come on! We can’t lose hope! I’m sure the principal wouldn’t send us on a suicidal mission… right?” Seeing as no one seemed to agree, he looked at Haruka in search for some support.

“Yeah, Otoya-kun is right! Our boss wouldn’t want ’the most popular members of his agency’ to fail horribly!” she said standing up.

“We just have to believe!” the redhead said.

It seemed that everyone was about to give up and join the ‘hopeful’ bandwagon when Syo yelled “I DON’T WANT MY CAREER TO END! IT JUST STARTED!” and then everyone went back to Depressionville.

After some moments of silence, Ringo stood up. “I have an idea!” and without explaining any further, he run out of the room.

 

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

Ringo ran straight to Shining’s office at full speed, and to his surprise, the crazy principal was already there. The teacher wanted to question how that was even possible but then he shrugged it off concentrating in the important issue at the moment.

“You can’t force us” the pink haired idol said.

“Oh no, I already said it: NO EXCUSES!”

“Yes yes, I heard. But you still owe me a favor, remember?” he said smirking.

“… So you’re gonna waste it with this? I’m not stupid you know, I did my research for the places you’re going to tour in… you _will_ have an audience there” Shining replied as his glasses glistened.

“Ummm… Okay? When and where are we touring, then?”

“Well, I can’t reveal you everything, but I can let you in on some deets” he said and then laughed maniacally once again. ‘ _Deets? For God’s sake… does he mean details? Oh my God…_ ’ Ringo thought.

“Yeah, sure… fill me in”

“O.K.!” he said making the peace sign with his hand; and then he continued “You will firstly do 10 different concerts here in Japan in the big cities, you know: a couple in Tokyo, a couple in Hokkaido, you get the picture… And then it continues with a couple of concerts in Korea, a couple in China and after that you’ll go to Europe… Lastly you’ll go to America and bam! Tour over”

“Oh… Okay… Then how long will the tour last?”

“For about a year, with a month break every four months just so you can catch your breath and it’ll start in about 2 months just so you can sort things out… How does it sound?”

“I… I don’t know… I still don’t think it would make much profit…”

“… So you still want to use your favor in this?”

“I… You already spent some money for the tour?”

“Not exactly, just moved some connections… But you have to tell me soon, otherwise this tour will be marked on stone and there is no way to go back from that”

“…” Ringo sat on the chair in front of Shining’s desk and proceeded to wreck his brains out trying to think about what he should do: Use his favor and make things go back to normal or risk everything on the chance that they might get even more popular? He honestly didn’t know what to do.

“I don’t-” the teacher was quickly cut off by the windows of the office breaking. The pieces of glass splattered everywhere, forcing both Ringo and the principal to crouch on the floor trying to protect themselves. After the initial blow happened, they slowly lifted their heads towards the windows and there they were greeted by the sight of Raging Ootori.

Ringo was furious: “You could’ve killed us, you dumbass!”

“Ah… Too bad” he replied in a somber tone.

“What do you want?!” asked Shining.

“What do I want? What is this that I hear that you are going to promote your pretty boys in a world tour before me? Unacceptable!”

“Oh, yeah? What are you going to do about it, you… you mobster!?” Ringo asked.

“I’m glad you asked! You see, if no one in my Agency does it first, I’m afraid no one will do it!” he said and then proceeded to laugh maniacally only to start coughing moments later.

“So?” the pink haired idol asked.

“So I spread some really horrible rumors about your completely unknown boys in all those foreign countries you planed to go to!” he said laughing once again.

“Oh… That is soooo scary!” ironically replied Ringo.

“Oh, you thought that was it?! No! I have some people that owe me big time in some of the places where the most important stadiums are at! I have already talked to them and I wouldn’t be surprised if they called you later today to tell you how sorry they are about the fact that YOUR BOYS CAN’T SING THERE!” he finished laughing and coughing at the same time (‘ _that man should seriously stop smoking…’_ Ringo thought). And right as he finished, Shining’s phone started ringing. He quickly picked up and by the look on his face; the teacher gathered that the stupid fake mobster was right.

“So you weren’t actually joking around, eh? I CHALLENGE YOU TO A DUEL!” Shining yelled. Just then, the phone rang once again. It seemed that Raging really had big connections.

“I ACCEPT! TOMORROW 6 PM, NO EXCUSES!” Raging replied. And with that he jumped out of the window.

‘ _It seems that the no excuses thing is contagious’_ Ringo thought.

The phone kept going off for the next hour or so. When it seemed no one would call, Shining looked up at the teacher and said: “It seems it’ll only be a Japan tour… congrats! This _is_ what you wanted, right?”

“No, of course not… I was actually looking forward to traveling…”

“Yeah, sure… NOW GET OUR OF MY OFFICE!” Shining yelled.

“Okay, okay… no need to yell…” he replied walking out of the room.

As he closed the door behind him, he noticed a large amount of people with expectant faces on the other side and following their train of thought, he said: “The tour’s off”

The responses to that were pretty different, the people that were sad it would happen in the first place were silently cheering but the majority was just a little sad and relieved at the same time.

“There will be no tour then?” asked Otoya sadly.

“There will be a tour, but not a world tour… it’ll be just Japan for now…”

“Oh…”

After a couple of minutes of silence, Syo stepped forward and asked: “Hey, by the way: what was that horrifically loud sound that came from here just moments ago? It sounded like a glass shattered…”

“That’s exactly what it was… The windows… broke…”

“How did the windows break?” asked Masato.

“Ootori Raging came in… you don’t want to know…” and with that, Ringo walked off. He really needed to go on some holidays if he kept working with this sort of crazy people.

Hyuuga went with him (since he was his ride) and together they tried to ignore the events that occurred on that really weird day.

 

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

Ranmaru went to take a nap (after receiving the good news) right behind Ringo. Not too long later, Camus went out.

Everyone else went back to the living room for tea time. Thankfully, this time the food was made by Masato, so no one had to make up excuses to escape from Natsuki’s ‘treats’.

“So… all of this was for nothing?” asked Reiji to no one in particular.

“It seems that way…” Ren replied.

“No, I don’t think this was for nothing… I mean, yes, we worried about a world tour that won’t happen any time soon but think about it: Now we’ll have our first tour ever! And not only that, but now we know where we stand about world touring and what risks we’re willing or not willing to take for our careers. Also: we are aware that there is a _possibility_ for world touring in the future. It’s not a fantasy, it could actually happen!” Haruka said getting everyone’s attention.

“Wow… That’s actually true…” said Syo.

“You should give motivational speeches Haru-chan!” Reiji added.

“Oh, stop it… I just stated the obvious…” she replied blushing.

“No Little Lamb, it’s true… Maybe in the not too far future you could actually write the lyrics to one of your songs”

“Really? But… But I’m only a composer… I don’t think I can…”

“Of course you can, maybe you can’t sing the song but writing the lyrics is a plausible event” Reiji said.

“Talking about that… Little Lamb, we never heard you sing before… I’m sure you have a lovely voice”

“I’m not… I’m not really that good… I wouldn’t want all of you to suffer from my lack of tuning”

“Come on, I don’t think that’s true, have you heard your voice when you talk? It’s pretty melodic if you ask me” Ren replied.

“No, really… I just… I only just sing when I do it for myself… Just to have fun… I’m not good enough to perform in front of… anyone, really”

“Haru-chan, don’t put yourself down! I’m sure you are pretty good; I know it feels that you are pressured to do this but you really aren’t… Just do it” Reiji said.

‘ _Doesn’t that count as pressure? Oh my God, I don’t want to do this! Quick! Look at Otoya with pleading eyes!’_ Haruka thought. She went all the way though; not only did she looked at him like ‘Please save me!’ but also got all teary eyed and made a pouty mouth. It didn’t take too long for him to react.

“Guys, come on. She clearly doesn’t want to do this, knock it off”

Reiji got closer to Otoya and grabbing his cheeks he said “Are you the cutest thing ever! Protecting your girlfriend like the cutie pie Prince Charming that you are!” To which Otoya responded slapping Reiji’s hands away.

“Ouch, Otoyan!” the redhead just stuck his tong out in response making everyone either giggle or laugh at the sight.

 

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

The rest of the evening progressed regularly. Everyone had dinner together, made some small talk and not too long after, it was already time to go to bed.

It had been yet another long day at the dorms and it had brought fatigue to almost every single resident there. The only vivid exception was Haruka, she had slept an impressive amount of 18 hours between the day before and that morning, so needless to say, she had so much energy she didn’t even want to go to her room. This was not actually good though, giving that her head was still stinging a little and her whole body ached from the sudden movements she had done all day. So, after most of the men in the room went to sleep, her sweet boyfriend stayed with her promising to ‘get her tired’, whatever that meant (this was of course the center of many mocking lines and gestures coming from their friends).

“So… what are you going to do to me?” Haruka asked innocently to Otoya.

He looked at her as if to reply but then he realized the double meaning of what she just said, so he blushed like a tomato.

“What? Is there something wrong?” she asked a little worried now.

“N-no! Of course not… I just… You said…” he was too embarrassed to even finish the sentence.

“What? I’m actually curious about what you plan to do with me tonight… Is that bad?”

Now steam was coming out of his ears and he couldn’t look at her any longer, so he covered his face with his hands.

Haruka was beyond lost in that moment; she truly didn’t know what the heck was making her boyfriend get so frustrated. But before she could ask again, she spotted a little movement from the corner of her eye. As she turned around she saw Ren standing right at the entry of the living room holding a sing. It read: “It’s a double entendre!”

‘ _What is that supposed to mean?’_ If Haruka thought she was confused before, now she was utterly lost. But one thing was obvious: Ren had been listening to their conversation.

Seeing as Otoya stayed oblivious to the other boy’s presence, she decided to mouth a reply to Ren: “ _What?”_ He just facepalmed in response and took out his cellphone. Not too long after, hers vibrated. As she checked the text she read “ _I mean that what you’ve been saying to him has a double meaning”_ and once again she was lost. ‘ _What is the double meaning? What the heck is he talking about?’_ she thought. But before she could dedicate much time in processing the information, she once again looked up at the idol standing at the door and mouthed “ _What?”_

Ren didn’t have any more patience so he just yelled “IT’S ABOUT SEX!” making Otoya turn around surprised and Haruka to blush deeply. Before the redhead could ask what was going on, the other boy said “And with that I bid you adieu” and quickly walked away thinking ‘ _How innocent can these two lovebirds be? Now I feel even worse that I got that close to kissing her’_

The couple looked at each other for a moment before quickly looking down blushing furiously. At the speed their hearts were going they weren’t going to get any sleep that night.

After some moments of complete silence, Haruka tried to do the brave move and said “I… Sorry… I didn’t mean for it to sound… that way…”

“Oh, no… Don’t apologize; I’m the dirty minded one… Sorry”

“… So… Are we okay now?”

“Yeah… Yes, of course we are”

“Then… without any other meaning behind it… what were you planning for tonight?”

“Um, well… I have a lot of options, but you choose: plan A or plan B?”

“It depends, what are those plans?”

“That’s the fun of it: it’s a surprise!”

“… Can I pick both?”

“Only if we have enough time… But you still have to choose which one we do first”

“Okay, let’s do plan A then… Just because of the order of the alphabet” she said giggling.

“As you wish” he said smiling back.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just fyi, if you're one of those wonderful people that reads my fic... whether it is on here or on ff.net, i wanna let you know that i haven't posted a new chapter since 22 'cuz i'm thinking about rewriting whole chunks of the already existing ones, and i don't really have much time now to write new things and rewrite old ones, so yeah...

Otoya instructed Haruka to go to her room and wait for him there. She was intrigued to say the least as to what this plan A was about. Whatever it was, as she got to her room she couldn’t help but check how she looked in the mirror. She had been so self-conscious lately that it wasn’t even funny. Maybe she should wear make-up… Or at least that’s what Tomochika always told her. She had never been a fan of it, but ever since she started dating her boyfriend there hadn’t been a moment that went by that she hadn’t thought about it. And with that horrible bruise on her forehead the feeling only got worse. But she still didn’t know if she should or not given that in one of the magazines where the Starish boys had been interviewed (and that she had proudly made them aware of), Otoya had said that what most attracted him in a girl was a ‘natural look’. She guessed that natural and full of make-up weren’t quite compatible but still…

Just as she sat down on her bed, still following that train of thought, she heard some soft knocks on the door. She quickly got up and saw Otoya standing outside with a guitar on his hand.

After he came in and closed the door, she asked “Why did you bring the guitar?”

“Oh, because that’s plan A: to sing together”

“What? Oh, no… I can’t do that… I said it before…”

“I know, you said you couldn’t do it in front of everyone… But there is nobody else here, just me… Come on, it’ll be just like as if you were alone… except better ‘cuz I’ll play the guitar” he said smiling.

“… I don’t know… What would I sing?”

“Whatever you want, but try to choose a song that I know” he said giggling.

“Okay okay… Ummm… What about… Mirai Chizu?”

“That sounds great!”

After that, he started playing the guitar waiting for her to start singing. When she did, he was so mesmerized he forgot to sing with her. So after not too long, she stopped altogether looking quite embarrassed.

“I’m really bad, aren’t I?” she said blushing.

“What? Are you kidding? I totally forgot to join in because I couldn’t think about anything but your voice!”

Now she was blushing furiously as she looked down “Re-really?”

“Yes!”

“You’re just saying that…”

“No, I’m not! What can I do to prove you that I’m serious?”

She thought about it for a moment, blushing slightly and then she replied “Nothing really… I… I believe you, it’s okay…”

“… You don’t look too happy about it… What are you thinking?”

She looked up at him and said “Nothing… I just… Why don’t we do plan B now?”

“But… Okay. I have to go again then… I’ll be right back” he said looking at her as if expecting her approval. When she lightly nodded, he walked out.

Haruka felt silly for acting all sad towards her boyfriend, but all the talking about singing and he convincing her about how good she was, had actually got her really nostalgic. She couldn’t help but think about her grandma and all the encouragement she gave her when she decided she wanted to become a composer. If it wasn’t for her, maybe she wouldn’t have been able to make it.

As she got lost in thought she laid her back on her bed ‘ _I can’t take more breaks… I have to make a new hit if I want to stay with Otoya-kun…’_ She looked up at the ceiling and tried to figure out how she could schedule her work in order to spend enough time with him to be satisfied (‘ _Satisfied? What am I thinking? It’s not like I’ll do anything weird…’_ she thought blushing) but still have plenty of time to keep writing songs. It seemed that Shining was still on the “write as many songs as you can so there are more chances to produce a hit” train. It made her feel frustrated given that not too long ago “Maji Love 2000%” had been released.

Suddenly she felt an excruciating pain on her head again. She covered her face with her hands as a reflex and stayed like that for what she thought was the longest time of her life. As the pain became weaker, she felt exhausted. Haruka slowly got up and went to change into her pajamas; she decided that whatever plan B was, it had to wait until another sleepless night.

When she came out of the bathroom, she found Otoya already in her room.

“Oh, you changed” he said.

“… Yes, I think I’m way too tired now… I know you wanted to do plan B, but I think I would just pass out in the process”

“Oh… Don’t worry; the whole purpose of the plans was to get you tired so… It’s okay… Then… I’ll guess I’ll go now”

Without verbally responding, she got closer to him and slowly leaned in for a hug. The embrace felt a little too intense. Haruka wasn’t really paying attention to Otoya’s reaction, but the poor boy was blushing for reasons that he couldn’t understand ‘ _We’re just hugging! Stop blushing, Otoya!’_ he thought to himself. In no time, the atmosphere felt a lot warmer, to the point that it made it difficult to breathe. This was the moment that she decided to move her mouth close to his ear and whisper “Don’t leave” making him tremble.

 “Ha-Haruka… Wha-what are you doing?” he asked nervously.

She pulled away slightly, just enough to look him in the eyes and replied in a whisper “I just don’t want you to leave… Can you stay with me for the night?”

“I…” he said looking away blushing.

“Please?”

“Okay, okay… but where do I-” she cut him off.

“Sleep? Right here next to me on the bed”

“I don’t know… It doesn’t really seem like a good idea…”

“Come on, we already did it once”

“I… Yes, but-”

“But what?”

He sighed and replied “Nothing… I… I’ll just go brush my teeth and change… I’ll be right back”

As he was walking away she grabbed his arm and pulled him in for a kiss. She wanted to make it soft and sweet but it ended up being just a quick peck on the lips. Sensing how uncomfortable he was, she asked “Are you mad at me?”

“What? No, I’m really happy”

“Oh, yeah? Then tell that to your face”

“Hey, wow. Are _you_ mad at me?”

“Would I ask you to stay the night with me if I were?”

He just looked down in response so she asked “What?”

“I just… if we’re going to keep dating like this… I’m gonna have to ask you a favor”

“Umm… yeah, sure… what is it?”

“This is going to sound weird, because I know you’re only acting with the best of intentions and you seem to be way more innocent than I am…”

“Wow, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s not an insult, believe me… It’s just… I don’t think you are aware of the effect you have in me”

“Effect? What do you mean?”

“I mean uh…” Otoya said thinking ‘ _How the heck do I say this?’_ As time went by he just kept blushing redder and redder.

“Otoya-kun…” she walked closer to him and put a hand on his face making him meet her eyes “… You can trust me”

“… Okay… umm… you know how ‘sleeping together’ has a double meaning, right?”

“Uh, yes” she replied blushing slightly.

“Well, every time we kiss a bit too much or lay together on a bed I can’t help but think… you know, _that…_ and I know you’re not thinking about it and it makes me feel guilty but… Do you know how _hard_ it is to contain myself every time?”

“Oh… I… But, what do you want me to do?”

“Just… try not to make it look like you want _that_ unless you actually do… just try… Because even though I completely respect you and I wouldn’t do anything that you wouldn’t want…  It’s hard, and I could use a little help…”

“But why didn’t you tell me this before?”

“Because it makes it sound like the only thing I think about is _that_ and I can assure you, it’s not… But if you’re sitting on my lap kissing me and you push me getting on top of me on the bed… it’s a little hard not to think about it, you know? I’m sorry… I… I believe a relationship doesn’t need _that_ to become stronger and more meaningful, but I’m only human and… a teenager… my hormones make some decisions that I would rather not, but I really try to stay rational…”

She put a finger on his lips and replied “It’s okay; there is no need to apologize… You’re honestly the best and I’m sure that I couldn’t have dated anyone better. I’ll try not to be too blunt next time, but… I have hormones too and sometimes I move without thinking about the consequences, and… I know I said I wasn’t ready, and I’m still not, but sometimes I just want to be closer to you and I forget what that implies…”

Hearing that, he moved her hand and slowly leaned in giving her a sweet kiss as he held her head and caressed her cheek. Not too long after she kissed back, he pulled away “Okay, I’ll be right back”

Haruka stood there looking at the door after he walked away. It was as if she was frozen. And she wasn’t even thinking about something, her mind was just blank.

Some minutes later when he walked through the door wearing his pajamas, she was still standing there. He expected some sort of comment about his ridiculous sleeping wear but she just stared. Otoya got closer to her and waving his hand in front of her face he tried to bring her back to reality. But it didn’t seem to work, she was stuck.

“Haruka? Are you okay?” he asked worriedly. He waited for a moment but it seemed that he wasn’t going to get an answer so he decided to just go ahead and kiss her again.

Feeling the sudden warmth in her lips and the sweet taste of mint in her mouth, she finally reacted. As she closed her eyes for a moment, he pulled away.

“What happened?” he asked.

“I… I don’t know…”

“But… What were you thinking about?”

“Nothing really… I just… I guess I’m just tired”

“Um… Okay?  Come on, I’m exhausted” he said pointing towards the bed.

They walked together to the bed and just like the night they started dating, they curled up against each other as they pulled the covers over their bodies.

Not too long after covering themselves, Haruka heard Otoya’s deep breathing signaling that he was already sound asleep, and even though that made her want to rest even more, she just couldn’t. ‘ _What is going on with me?’_ she thought. It was pretty weird how tired she was but how impossible it was to sleep anyways. ‘ _I must have insomnia’_ she thought as she closed her eyes one more time.

After what felt like an eternity, she gave up. ‘ _Maybe I won’t get any rest tonight’_ she thought. ‘ _But I don’t understand… First I get completely frozen at nothing and now I can’t sleep? Is this because of the hit in my head? No… It can’t be… It’s not that bad… It really hasn’t hurt much since I brushed my teeth… Then what could it be?’_ Trying to find an answer, she looked up at her nightstand. In there was a photo of her and Starish, taken right after their second concert. They all looked so happy and she could just remember how relieved she felt when it was announced that they had more votes than Heavens. As she reminisced, it hit her: guilt. That was the reason she got lost at nothing and why she couldn’t sleep: she felt that all this time she was spending with Otoya and recuperating from her stupid injury was being taken away from her composing and encouraging every member of Starish to give their best.

The longest conversation she had with anyone apart from Tomochika, Otoya and Ringo had been with Ren and she still felt the need to talk to each of the boys. She was deeply worried about how they had taken her relationship with her boyfriend and after having talked to Ren she had only felt more preoccupied. She needed to talk to all of them in private ASAP.

With all of that in mind, finally having figured out her problem, she fell asleep with a smile on her face promising to come up with a solution the next day.   

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

****

**_Friday_ **

 

When Haruka woke up she found it weird how cold she felt. So she slowly opened her eyes and turned around discovering that she was alone. As she looked up at the pillow she saw a little note there. It read: “ _Dear Haruka: I hope you slept well, it sure looked like it ;) I would’ve loved to be there with you when you woke up, but I had to work early today. Please be safe and don’t hesitate to call me if there is anything that you need (no matter how silly you may think it is). I love you, Otoya_ ” She stared at it for a moment and when the words finally sunk in, she smiled and replied out loud (even though she knew he couldn’t hear her): “I love you too” Then she got up and went straight to take a shower.

Before actually getting in, she had to take her bandages off, so once again she stood in front of the mirror as she slowly took them off. She closed her eyes as she did so, but when her forehead was completely uncovered, she had to look. The sight that greeted her wasn’t as unpleasant as the day before, and she was glad to say that unless someone hit her in the head, it didn’t seem to sting, not in the slightest. Some of the bruises had gotten darker as others lighter, making somewhat of an uneven mirage of colors in her face. It looked pretty weird, but she decided it was actually funny, so the last thing she did before she freshen up was to laugh at herself a little. 


	16. Chapter 16

Haruka had decided to wear a headband instead of more bandages given that she didn’t have any cuts. She could’ve easily left her forehead naked, but she didn’t want to show anyone her still not so pretty bruises.

After changing, she went to the music room carrying a bunch of empty music sheets and her pencil case.

Sometime later, she had successfully finished two songs. She wasn’t particularly proud of them, but they weren’t that bad. Who knows? Maybe they were hits afterall; she just had to keep trying.

As she was about to start a third one, the lack of inspiration struck (probably because she was too hungry to think about music). So she headed towards the kitchen to get some snacks. Walking there, she looked at her watch and realized that it was 12 pm already and she hadn’t eaten anything in the whole day, yet!

‘ _Maybe it’s a better idea to make myself some lunch? But I don’t want to take too long…’_ she thought as she crossed the living room. Just moments later, she stopped on her tracks. A wonderful smell was coming from the kitchen making her drool at the thought of the food it was coming from. She followed the scent and not too long after, she found herself standing right behind Masato.

Haruka couldn’t help but think that in the last year or so, all the time they had spent in the master course, Masato had taken somewhat the role of the official maid of the household. She giggled inwardly as she remembered the first day she had arrived there and got scared by the blue haired boy cleaning her windows with an apron and a bandana on his head. He was truly admirable. Not only did he cook for everyone by choice (and rather perfectly she could add) but he also cleaned the house and did it all in comfortable silence, acting from the shadows without expecting any sort of reward.

She didn’t want to frighten him, but she was so hungry that if she didn’t spoke up quickly, her stomach was going to do it for her first.

“Hijirikawa-san?”

Upon hearing his name pronounced by her voice, he involuntarily leaned forward making his spoon fall inside of one of the frying pans. After quickly getting it out, he turned around facing her “Oh… You scared me”

“I… Yes, I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to…”

“No, it’s okay… I should’ve noticed your presence”

She didn’t know what to reply to that so she just stayed quiet. Luckily for her, he seemed to be in a talkative mood, so he just kept the conversation going.

“So… What are you doing here?”

“Oh… I… I’m hungry and I…”

“Say no more, you want to have lunch with me?”

She looked up at him dubiously “Umm… Just if you have enough, I mean… who else is going to join us?”

“No one, actually”

“Oh?”

“Yes, Ren had a recording today so his incredibly bruised face won’t be able to make it. As for the rest of the guys… I know Otoya and Tokiya are promoting and recording a lot of things today so they are off too… Cecil… I don’t really know where he is half of the time, and as of our two remaining friends… They were having lunch on their own someplace else”  

“Oh, I see… but… You really don’t mind? Maybe you wanted to have some solitude today-” he cut her off by putting his hand up.

“No, please, I would rather eat with you than being alone any day, as much as I enjoy having time for myself” he said bluntly.

“Oh… I… Thank you, I really appreciate that” she replied smiling brightly.

“No problem” he said nodding and turning back to his cooking.

“Do you need me to help you with anything?” she asked interrupting him.

“Oh um… Maybe you could get the dishes, silverware and glasses on the table, I’m almost done”

“Okay” she said as she grabbed the required elements.

As she finished, he carried the food to the table and shortly afterwards, they were peacefully eating in silence.

When they completed cleaning the dishes after lunch, Masato waved goodbye and started walking away only to be stopped by Haruka’s voice “Wait!”

He turned around and replied “Is there anything you need?”

“No… Well, yes, actually”

“I don’t understand… Yes or no?”

“Kind of yes”

“Ummm… Okay? What is it?”

“I… Can we talk?”

“I’m fairly sure we’re already doing that”

“Yeah, but… Well, you’re right”

“… So?”

“Oh, yes… Umm… I don’t really know how to put this… I-” he cut her off.

“Is this about your relationship with Otoya?”

“I- Yes, how do you know?”

“Ren told me about the little chat you two had… You really don’t have to worry about me, I’m not like him”

“Yes, I know, but ever since we started dating everyone has been a little… distant towards us and I really appreciate all of you guys and I want us to still be friends like we have for all this time”

“… I’m sorry if I seemed cold in some way, I just needed a little time to assimilate the information, but I’m fine now, honestly. You don’t need to worry about losing our friendship, that’s not going to happen”

“Are you really? I don’t mean to be intrusive, but I’ve noticed that lately you’ve been doing much more housework than ever and… I care about you, if you don’t feel comfortable with this situation… please tell me”

“I would be lying if I told you I’m perfectly happy with… this, but I care about you too, much more than you can even imagine, and I can see you’re happier now. Who am I to take that away from you?”

“… Hijirikawa-san, you shouldn’t keep this all to yourself, it can’t possibly end well, believe me, I know”

“Yes, I am aware, but… this is the way I am… I can’t, I’m sorry” and with that he quickly walked away ignoring her calling his name.

 

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

Masato locked himself up in his room hoping that neither of his roommates arrived early that day. He truly needed more time to himself.

He thought he had handled the whole Haruka situation quite well, but it all went to hell when he was told about her relationship with Otoya. He wanted her so bad, he loved her so deeply and yet she had fallen for another man. She hadn’t even given him time to confess, time to get all those feelings out of his chest. He had been sure that singing her songs was enough for him, that the connection they shared through the music was all he needed, and it had been true… at least until recently in had been. No, all that effort he put on to suppress his love for the good of the band, his and everyone else’s careers had been in vain. Had he known that just asking the principal they would get a green light in dating he would’ve made more moves before. Actually no, he wouldn’t have done anything either, he probably wouldn’t have made any significant move unless he was positive that she was attracted to him as well, unless he was sure that no negative outcome (or at least not any significant one) could come from it. So… it was surely his fault, right? He couldn’t blame Otoya for being more forward and somehow winning her love in the process, and he couldn’t possibly blame Haruka, he loved her too much to do that. But he still felt… betrayed. Yes, he felt as if he had been played. Two of his closest (or dare he say it: only) friends had taken an interest in each other and had acted upon it ignoring everyone else’s feelings in doing so. He knew they couldn’t have possibly done that with any ill intention, but it still pained him, he had never fallen for another woman before. The time he spent with her had helped him get over many of his insecurities in regards to his father and their whole business; she had even helped him get to terms with Ren. Haruka had been a bright light of inspiration for him, so much so that he didn’t realize how much he loved her until it was too late to turn back.

Against his better judgment, he had even planned a life with her for the future. He truly thought of her as his future wife and maybe that is why he had been cleaning and cooking so much: he wanted to become a better husband for her. He didn’t even realize what he was doing until he had a horribly specific dream about it. And yet again, just as he noticed how much he was willing to do for her, it was too late. But all of that thinking turned out to be useless; she couldn’t possibly do that for him now. Even if she did stand by him and kept helping with everything he needed: it just wasn’t the same.

Masato thought that with her encouragement he could finally face his father, stop cowering in the back expecting his grandfather or his butler to protect him (especially now that his grandpa wasn’t there for him anymore).

Unlike Ren, he didn’t have a clue as to how to approach other women. But with Haruka it had been different, for the first time he felt that the interaction was natural, that he could do it for the rest of his life without any problems.

‘ _Stop it! I have to be strong!’_ he thought ‘ _If not for me I have to do it for Mai’,_ but even thinking that, he couldn’t help but feel sad… No, sad wasn’t the word… Depressed was more like it. So before he could realize it, a tear fell to his hand and quickly afterwards: he was sobbing. He tried to block the noise by covering his face with his hands, but it didn’t seem to work so he grabbed his pillow finally achieving his goal.

At that moment he heard someone knock at his door, and soon afterwards, that person said “Hijirikawa-san! Please open the door; I really need to talk to you!” It was Haruka, and she seemed pretty worried by the tone of her voice.

He felt an impulse to scream “ _Go away!”_ to her, but he couldn’t possibly do anything to hurt her, even if that meant hurting himself, so he stayed quiet, waiting for her to leave.

After a long moment of silence, he decided that she had probably left, so he went to the bathroom to calm himself without unlocking the door to the room (just in case) as he left.

In the meantime what he couldn’t have predicted happened: Ranmaru arrived and opened the door to their room unbeknownst of the reason why the door had been closed in the first place.

Haruka had been walking around the dorms as she waited for Masato to give up when she found that it was finally unlocked. She walked in without giving it a second thought only to find Ranmaru napping inside. She stood there for a moment and thankfully not too long afterwards, the blue haired boy came out of the bathroom.

“Nanami-san?!” he yelled in surprise. Hearing that, she put one finger on her lips as if to tell him to make silence and then she gestured towards his senpai. Seeing him, Masato mouthed “ _Oh”_ and slowly walked outside the room just behind the composer.

After he closed the door he asked “What are you doing here?”

“What do you think? You escaped from our conversation!”

“Well, there was a reason for that. Now if you excuse me, I have a lot of things to do” he said trying to move past her. She stopped him and quickly grabbed his hand forcing him to follow her.

She took him to the music room nearby where she had been writing the new songs just so they could have some privacy. Also: the room only had one door so she could maneuver a way to stop him from leaving if he was inclined to do so again.

“Listen, I know you may be angry with me for forcing this into you, but it is really important to me that you are okay with my relationship and I feel that this conversation is necessary in order to maintain our friendship” she said.

He sighed and replied “No, you don’t understand, the feelings I have for you are… I… I love you, I really do, and more than that: I want you. I truly hoped to spend the rest of my life with you and now you are with him and… I’m sorry, I don’t aim to be selfish, but I can’t avoid it… As much as you may want our friendship to remain untouched… It’s just not possible”

“But-” he cut her off putting a finger to her lips.

“No, let me talk now, if you want to have this conversation so bad then I’m going to give it to you” she slightly nodded so he continued “You gave me hope when I needed it the most, you inspired me to pursuit a career in the arts no matter what (I was going to give up on it after a year as that was the deal I made with my father), you made me discover my passion and there are many other things that I may be forgetting right now, but the thing is that I’m thankful for ever meeting you. My life is better thanks to you and I will never be able to repay you for that, but I can’t take things back to square one. Not only because I fell in love with you, but because my feelings are unrequited and let’s not forget about the fact that you are dating one of my best friends… So no, our relationship will never be the same… Maybe after some time I’ll move on, but I have no idea how to do that, I never loved anyone like this before… I’m sorry, you can talk now” he said moving his hand away.

Haruka’s vision was getting blurry, she felt like crying, but she needed to argue back. What reason could she give him that would make his pain worth it? Every second that passed just made the lump in her throat worse, she could hardly breathe normally, but she truly _had to_ say something.

“I… Hijirikawa-san… I” she said as her last bit of will slipped away and she broke down in tears. He pulled her close to him as he whispered for her not to cry, but she only sobbed more loudly.

“Nanami… Please don’t cry” he said as he made small circles on her back with his hands, trying to comfort her.

She took a deep broken breath between sobs and said “Hijirikawa-san, I… I can’t lose you”

He grabbed her head with his hands drying her tears and looking her straight in the eyes he replied “You won’t lose me, you hear that?” she nodded so he continued “I just… I need time for myself… I’ll have to avoid you for a while, but it’s only for the best” as she started sobbing again, he let go of her face and pulled her in for a hug once again.

“I’m sorry” he whispered in her hair. Hearing that, Haruka thought to herself: ‘ _I need to calm down’_ and after some deep breathing and positive thinking, she stopped crying and slowly looked up at him.

“I’ll miss you, I really will” she said sadly.

He caressed her cheek and replied “I’ll miss you too, but I need to do this… That doesn’t mean I can though…”

“… What do you mean?”

“I mean that I’m not sure I’ll be able to avoid having a conversation with you, to look at your eyes like I’m doing right now and see you looking back at me…”

“Oh…” she replied in a very low voice.

Suddenly they found themselves staring at each other’s eyes and the fact that they were so close to each other made the air that much thick. Masato was slowly leaning in to her, but oblivious to that act, Haruka had a surprisingly bubbly thought, and she didn’t wait any longer to tell him: “You’re hugging me!”


	17. Chapter 17

“I… Oh… Ummm… Yes… How… How did you know I had a problem with that?” he said taking two steps back while blushing.

“Well… Otoya-kun told me all about your acting adventures” she said giggling.

He moved his arms away from her and said blushing slightly “Huh… That was… different”

“Eh? What do you mean?”

“I… well… You know how I got the part when I auditioned, right?”

“Yes, of course”

“Well, the thing is that… you really helped me do that”

“I… Yes, I believe you told me that right after you got the news… But I still don’t know how, I don’t think I even talked to you much during your audition process… If you have to be grateful towards someone it should be towards the guys”

“Well, yes… They were really kind… And they had the best of intentions, but at the end of the day, I was the only one that was auditioning and what actually got me the part was… you”

“I still don’t…”

“Ummm… You see… I…” he said blushing.

“Yes?”

‘ _Ughh… Man up Masato! Man up!’_ he thought. So taking a deep breath he said: “Ipicturedyouweretheactressiwassupposedtohugandthatwayicouldshowmyemotionsandithelpedmeact!”

“… Sorry, I didn’t understand a word you said… Could you talk a little slower?”

“I…”

“Hijirikawa-san, is there something troubling you?”

“N-no, it’s nothing like that” he said as he avoided her eyes, his face turned red as a tomato.

“Then, what is it?”

“I… Okay, I’m just going to say it… In order to get the part I had to imagine myself in a place where I shared similar feelings to the character I was portraying” seeing as she nodded he finished, blushing: “So I pictured you there… I imagined that you were the actress I hugged… so… That’s why I thank you”

“Oh…” she said as she looked down blushing.

“Wh-what did Otoya tell you?” he asked suddenly.

“Oh… He said that you had trouble hugging Ichinose-san… Or anyone for that matter… So they were really glad when you made it in the audition”

“Oh, I see” he replied as silence kicked in.

Moments later Haruka remembered the situation they were in, so she said: “So… You’re not going to talk to me now… will you?”

“Nanami-san…”

“I… No, it’s okay… I get it… I just… It makes me really sad” she said as her vision got blurry again.

“… I’m sorry… I really wish it hadn’t gotten to this point, but… I don’t think I can restrain myself while I’m around you… I wouldn’t want to betray Otoya’s trust”

“Eh?”

He avoided her gaze as he said: “When we hugged… I almost kissed you”

“WHAT?!”

“I know… I… I’m deeply sorry, I can’t ask for your forgiveness enough… But had I actually done it… Let’s just not think about it… What happened was proof enough that I need to stay away from you” he said as he started walking towards the door.

“But, Hijirikawa-san!”

“Haruka” he said coldly looking her straight in the eyes.

‘ _It’s the first time he calls me by my first name… And yet I feel sad… It’s as if he’s using it to ground me or something… At least that’s how it sounds like…’_ she thought as she stared back.

As she looked down away from him, he slowly turned back towards the exit and steadily walked away.

What she didn’t see though were the tears that rolled down his face as he rounded the corner of the hallway on his way to the Lesson room 1. He knew no one would interrupt him if they heard the piano from outside and he truly needed to play a little to ease his mind. Masato craved to know that what he was doing was the right thing. On one side he had a feeling that this was the only way he could still stay in Starish, but on the other hand, his chest hurt so much he had to stop every few steps just to take deep breaths and try not to cry.

 

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

Haruka stood alone in the empty music room as she stared at the wall. It was silly of her to think that a nice talk to every guy would make everything better. Even as she thought about it, she figured that maybe Ren wasn’t really okay at all with the situation either… But it was out of her hands… At least Starish was still an item, right?

She sat on the floor as she laid her face on her knees; it seemed that was her “ _What am I going to do with my life?”_ position.

Maybe she shouldn’t talk to the rest of them. No, she was sure she wouldn’t be able to lose each of her friends one by one… but they needed closure… heck, she needed it. It didn’t matter how much pain she had to go through, she had to do it, because… what if Masato hadn’t talked to her today and then suddenly he began giving her the cold shoulder? It was quite possible that if that happened she wouldn’t have been able to have the same conversation she did today.

“Why does it have to be so hard?” she asked out loud to no one in particular as she broke down once again. She hid her face between her knees and stayed there for a while. A voice inside her head told her to get up and get to work on more songs, but she wasn’t strong enough at the moment, she just wanted to lay there and cry until she ran completely dry… But eventually she had to get up; or at least until someone found her… ‘ _Maybe I can go to my room to take a nap… I’m not really tired, but I don’t think anyone will disturb if I lock it and cry like a little baby inside… Ughh… But what if Otoya gets out earlier? He would be so worried… I could text him that I…’_ as she thought that, her phone vibrated in her hand. She had a text from Mr. Smilieface himself: “ _:D Haruka-chan! How are you?”_

She sighed as she thought ‘ _What is he doing? Shouldn’t he be working?’_ so with that in mind she replied: “ _Otoya-kun, what are you doing? Are you out of work already?”_ Quickly after she pressed sent, her cute little jingle started playing marking that someone was calling her. As she checked the caller ID she saw a picture she didn’t even know she had with Otoya, it was really cute, but she couldn’t help but cry at the sight of it, she felt really fragile. ‘ _What is wrong with me? I can’t pick up like this; he’ll hear me cry… I can’t worry him like that’_ she thought as she pressed ignore. As the screen of her phone went back to normal she quickly sent him a message to avoid him worrying and/or calling again: “ _Sorry Otoya-kun, I can’t pick up now, my battery is running low”_ it was a lame excuse but it was all she could think of on the spot. After she pressed sent, she slowly got up and walked outside.

In the hallway she saw in the distance a vague figure resembling Natsuki. As he noticed her, he started waving at her direction as he yelled: “Haru-chan!”

‘ _Oh, no… This is not good, if he sees me like this he’ll never leave me alone’_ she thought as she quickly made up her mind to run towards the other end of the hallway.

Seeing her rapidly disappear from his view, Natsuki stood dumbfoundedly thinking ‘ _Maybe she didn’t see me?’_ Although oblivious to it, his other side had another idea: ‘ _She ignored Natsuki, that is unforgivable… But I do wonder: why?’_

 

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

Haruka quickly locked the door of her room as she let herself fall to the ground.

‘ _Maybe I should’ve picked up… Otoya-kun always knows how to cheer me up’_ she thought as she started crying again.

After running all the way over there and with that gelatin-like feeling she had on her legs, she decided to crawl all the way over to her bed. As she let herself fall over it, she stared out of her window.

‘ _It’s snowing again…’_ she thought trying to distract herself. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to calm down and started slowly drifting off.

Suddenly a weird noise resounded in her room. It was as if someone was knocking on… glass. She quickly opened her eyes and found a certain emerald eyed boy staring right back at her from the other side of the window.

“Cecil-san!” she yelled. As he waved at her she remembered how cold it was outside so as fast as she could she walked towards the window and opened it just to close it as he got in.

“Cecil-san, what are you doing here?!”

“Haruka, are you crying? Why?” he asked ignoring her question.

“Eh? No, it’s nothing…” she said quickly drying her face with her hands.

“Tell me what happened, did Otoya do something to you?”

“What? No, everything is fine, really… You still haven’t told me why you’re here”

“Oh, that’s simple: My muses told me you weren’t feeling well, so I came”

“Umm, okay?”

“Now it’s your turn, I won’t leave until you tell me why you were crying”

“Cecil-san…”

“I’m serious”

 Seeing the determined look on his face, she sat down on her bed and avoiding his eyes said: “I guess I found out that I can’t fix everything…”

“Eh?”

She looked up at him and said: “When I decided to date Otoya-kun I didn’t know that the principal would let us do it so easily… But I didn’t realize that it still had a price… I’m losing six of my friends because of it and I can’t do anything to change that”

He sat next to her and taking one of her hands, he replied: “I know that I’ve been acting really jealous around you two, but that’s just the way I am, I’m sorry… I can’t really avoid it… Although there is something you need to know: Even if you stay with him forever, there is nothing you can do that will change my feelings for you. Even if I move on, form another family, you name it, I will always be grateful. So given that I noticed the other boys having similar feelings as mine towards you, I can tell you that even if it doesn’t seem like it right now: we’ll do anything for you. If what you want is to be with him, then we will cheer you on, even if it means to suppress our love for you” then he leaned in placing a kiss on the back of her hand and finished: “I love you, Haruka, my princess. If you ever get tired of Otoya, you can always come to me”

“EHHHH?! CE-CECIL-SAN!” she stuttered as she blushed.

At that moment someone knocked at her door so Cecil got up and said: “Well, I guess it’s my time to leave!” and opening the window, he ran off.

She stood there confused for a moment but as whoever was at the door knocked again, she went back to reality. She quickly walked up to the nearest mirror and checking her face she decided: ‘ _this is as good as it gets’_ So answering “I’m coming!” she approached the door.

When she finally got to open it, her eyes instantly locked with ruby ones. Surprised, she jumped back and fell on her rear.

“Haruka?” he asked confused getting her attention.

“I… you scared me… ouch” she said as she caressed her injured area.

He got close to her and giving her a hand, helped her get up and replied: “Sorry… I just wanted to surprise you”

“Then you did a great job” she said giggling.

He smiled and upon closer inspection said: “Why are you wearing a headband?”

“Eh?” she touched her forehead in confusion and as she felt the fabric, she replied: “Oh, I just needed something to hide my bruises… It’s not the prettiest accessory, but it was the best I could find to cover it up”

“Really? Is it that bad? Come on, let me see” he said getting closer to her and making her blush in the process.

“N-no, it’s awful, I don’t want you to see it!”

“Haruka, please, I’ve done a lot of sports my whole life, a little bruise you got by someone hitting you with a door would be nothing in comparison to everything I’ve seen”

“But…”

“Pleeeeease?” he said as he fake pouted.

‘ _Oh no… Not the puppy face! NOOOOO’_ Haruka thought as she slowly removed her headband and closed her eyes, waiting for his reaction.

Otoya stared at her small bruises for a moment thinking ‘ _Wow, she really exaggerated, this is nothing!’_ But then he decided to play along and said: “You were right, it looks horrible!”

She quickly opened her eyes and avoiding his gaze she tried to put the headband back on. As she was about to place it in its previous spot, Otoya grabbed her hands to stop her and put the piece of fabric in one of the back pockets of his pants.

“O-Otoya-kun!” she yelled surprised.

He glared at her mischievously and after seeing her blush get a deeper shade of red, he said: “Haruka, I was teasing you, you have nothing”

“Eh? Tha-that’s not true, I checked on the mirror and…” she started saying only to stop as he moved closer to her.

He carefully took her face with his hands and placed a soft kiss on her bruises. As he pulled away he noticed she had shut her eyes as if afraid that he would change his mind, so he said: “You look beautiful” making her open them just in time for him to kiss her on the lips. At this, she pulled him closer by the neck kissing him back.

Moments later, when she pressed her body against his, he pushed her away.

“Haruka…” he said breathlessly.

She gave him a quick peck on the lips in response and said: “Okay…” as she leaned in again. When her lips touched his, she felt him smile onto her mouth even though he seemed not too kin about that much kissing, making her smile back and deepen the kiss. As their tongues came in contact, Haruka felt a wave of electricity go through her body that forced her to think: ‘ _Oh no… Not again… Don’t make any noise… don’t… nope’_ in that moment, Otoya wrapped his arms around her so that they could be more comfortable. He tried to just focus on the kiss, in order not to get his mind into more rocky issues, so as he did; he noticed that her lips tasted like strawberry.

Later as Haruka pulled away in favor of air, she slightly opened her eyes and as she looked at her redheaded boyfriend, she couldn’t help but giggle, startling him in the process.

“What? What is it?” he asked as he let go of her embarrassed.

“No-nothing” she said as she kept giggling.

“Haruka!” he replied in an accusatory tone.

“I just… I was wearing lipstick and now it’s all over your face!” she said as she laughed harder now.

“I… What?!” he said as he ran towards the closest mirror he could find. As he looked at himself though, all anger went away and he started laughing alongside her.

After they laughed it out and could actually breathe again, Otoya asked: “Since when do you wear lipstick?”

“Oh… Ummm… Well, Tomo-chan bought me a whole make-up unit for my birthday and I thought I should start using it…”

“Today?” he said giggling.

“Yeah…”

“It’s weird; I never thought you would wear make-up”

“Me neither, but there is always a first time for everything, right?”

“I guess… I wish your bedroom wasn’t as dark though, maybe I could’ve noticed before your lipstick wound up in my face” he said giggling.

“Oh…”

“Wait… Why is your room this dark anyways? Where you sleeping before I got here?”

“Before I answer that, you have to tell me the truth: did you actually got to see my bruises if you couldn’t see my lips?”

“Hey! I asked first!”

She just stared at him in response so he sighed and replied: “I can see your forehead perfectly fine, it’s not really _that_ dark in here… Maybe I couldn’t see your lipstick ‘cuz you had a light color?”

“Oh… yeah, it’s actually a pretty similar shade of pink as my actual lips… But it was strawberry scented, you didn’t notice?”

“Oooh, so that’s what it was! I thought you had eaten some strawberries or something like that”

“Nope…”

“You still haven’t answered my questions, you know”

“Ah… Yes… I tried to take a nap, but it didn’t really work”

“Eh? What do you mean?” he asked as he moved to turn the lights on.

After closing her eyes for a moment trying to adapt them to the new brightness in the room, Haruka replied: “It’s nothing…”

Upon closer inspection, Otoya noticed a certain puffiness in her face, so he said: “Are you okay?”

“Umm, of course, why do you ask?”

“Please don’t take this the wrong way, ‘cuz I’m only asking since I’m a bit worried, but… your face looks a bit swollen… What happened?”

She sighed and thought: ‘ _It seems I’ll have to tell him after all…’_ as she sat on her bed. After he joined her, she said: “I had a talk with Hijirikawa-san… It didn’t really end well”

“What?”

“He said we can’t be friends anymore… and needless to say, I cried… a lot” she replied avoiding his gaze.

“Oh, Haruka…” he said as he quickly hugged her.

As she hugged back, she took deep breaths to avoid crying and in his arms said: “I love you”

“I love you too” he said as he rubbed small circles in her back.

As they pulled away, Otoya held her face in his hands and said: “It’ll be okay, you’ll see” to which she just nodded as she thought: ‘ _I really do hope so…’_


	18. Chapter 18

After a long moment of silence, Haruka let herself lay in his arms. Next thing she knew, she was sound asleep.

Otoya couldn’t help but look at her calm features wishing he could do something to get her to look that way while awake. All these discussions with their friends were tearing her down little by little. He knew that she was convinced she had to do this on her own, but… maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea if he intervened, right? What could possibly go wrong? The only thing he had to do was talk… But what did he have to say? He felt tempted to ask Haruka, but if he did then she would know what he was planning to do, and she would certainly not be very fond of his idea.

‘ _It seems I can’t be of any help then… But it can’t be that hard? Maybe I just have to ask: “Hey, do you have a problem with me and Haruka dating?” No… It’s too obvious; if what she told me about Masa is true then I’m pretty sure that the answer to that question would be a unanimous “NO” This sucks!’_ he thought sadly.

In that moment, Haruka moaned in her sleep making Otoya smile. ‘ _I wonder what she’s dreaming…’_ he thought right before she gripped him tightly. He stayed still as his smile grew wider, ‘s _he’s so cute!’_

Suddenly, Maji Love 2000% started playing making the redhead think ‘ _Oh crap! My phone! Where is it?’_ He looked around the room desperately only to remember that he had it in one of the front pockets of his pants… The bad part was that Haruka was _over_ him, so if he tried to take it out, he would surely wake her up… But she could easily wake up by the sound of the music too. When the chorus started he decided to just take it out and be done with it. As he did, he was pleasantly surprised to find that she was resting so soundly that all the movement he did didn’t seem to alter her in the slightest. Silently picking up, he quickly checked the caller ID and said in a whisper: “Masa, hello… It’s not a good time now”

“What? What do you mean? Why are you whispering? Where are you?”

“I’m in Haruka’s room…” Before he could whisper any more, Masato interrupted him.

“Oh, I’m really sorry… I didn’t mean to disturb… I…”

Catching his line of thought, Otoya quickly added a little louder: “It’s not what you think! She’s asleep and I’m keeping her company”

“Oh”

“Listen, we can talk later… I’ll meet you downstairs in a bit, okay?”

“Okay, great. I’ll be right outside the entrance of the women’s dormitories”

“Okay, bye” the redhead said right before hanging up.

As he looked back at his girlfriend, he noticed that her expression remained undisturbed. She really was a heavy sleeper. So it couldn’t really be a problem to get her off and inside the bed just so he could leave. At least that’s what he thought. He started to move slowly towards the pillow just so he could roll over to the other side and be done with it, but as he did so, her grip on him tightened as she said groggily: “Otoya…” Hearing that, he stayed immobile yet again, waiting for her to open her eyes. But it seemed she was still dreaming, so he continued with the task he had in hand and carefully placed her under the covers. For a moment he thought if he should change her clothes, but he quickly rejected the thought as he blushed. Seeing her replace his body with a pillow, he decided it was time to leave, but before doing so, he gave her a soft peck on the lips.

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

Masato stood against the wall outside of the women’s dorms waiting. He really felt he needed to clear things up with Otoya too, especially now that he was positive that Haruka had talked to him.

Maybe this was a bad idea… after all, he could barely deal with himself after talking to her. He had put so much strength into playing the piano as he tried to clear his mind that he actually got a couple of blisters. But he felt obliged to tell his friend about his intentions towards his girlfriend. Not because he planned on doing anything, but because he thought that saying nothing would be the same as actually expecting her to be with him. And as much as he wanted that, he couldn’t betray Otoya that way.

As he started hearing footsteps, he moved from the wall and stood to look as his friend walked closer.

When Otoya got to where he was, the redhead asked: “Why did you call?”

“I wanted to talk to you”

“About?”

“You and Nanami”

Otoya sighed and said: “Of course…”

“Has she told you anything about our conversation?”

“… She said that you won’t be her friend anymore, is that true?”

“Not exactly, but I understand where the confusion comes from…”

“… So?”

“Oh, yes… Sorry. Well, the thing is that I’m not 100% okay with the situation and I asked her for a timeout… some time just for myself where I’ll somewhat ignore her just for the purpose of moving on”

“Oh? What about me?”

Masato looked at him with a bemused expression and replied: “I don’t… I’m not in love with you”

Hearing that, Otoya broke down laughing, but quickly stopped seeing as his friend seemed to be quite serious about the issue and said: “That’s not what I meant, dummy. I’m asking… Are _we_ still friends? Or are you going to ignore me for a while too?”

“I don’t really see why I would, I already told you: I’m not in love with you”

“Yes yes, I know, but I’m saying this because if you’re ignoring her ‘cuz of your feelings then maybe you would ignore me because you’re jealous or angry or something” 

“Oh no, I may be a little jealous, I have to admit, but I know you’re not at fault. It’s a very different situation”

“How is it different?”

“Well, you know… I need to get over _her_ , not you. I wouldn’t want to be unfair”

“Unfair? You know… You ignoring me, I can take. Afterall, I stole the girl you love! You have a frickin’ reason, but no, you’re going to avoid her. And you know what, I can’t help but take _that_ personally! You have no idea how broken she is right now, she really appreciates your friendship and this thing you are doing is completely pointless”

“I’m sorry you feel that way, but there’s nothing I can do”

“Really? Nothing? So you’re just going to give her the cold shoulder until you ‘move on’ whatever that means. You know you _have to_ talk to her in order to properly work, right?”

“Yes, I know! And I really don’t want to do this, but what other choice do I have? For now this is the best option, and I’m sorry if you don’t feel this way, but I _need_ to do this right now, otherwise I would never forgive myself!”

“What? Why? I can’t possibly see how this is your better choice! How can you forgive yourself for actually doing this?!”

The argument had gotten quite heated at that moment, to the point that Masato forgot to use any sort of logic and yelled: “Because I almost kissed her today!”

This rendered Otoya speechless as he stared at his blue haired friend in disbelief. It took him a moment to process the news, but then he breathlessly said: “What?”

Realizing what he had done, Masato stared back in horror. Unfortunately for him, it was too late to back down, so he just tried to explain himself as best as he could: “Today… When I told Nanami that I had to ignore her for a while, she broke down crying… So I hugged her… When we pulled away, she was so close that I couldn’t help but lean in… She didn’t seem to notice though; she was just happily distracted by the fact that I was embracing her. I’m sorry, I couldn’t control myself enough and I don’t think I’ll be able for a while… That’s why I need to do this, I hope you can understand”

The redhead stayed silent throughout the whole speech, expressionless, but as the other boy finished talking, he opened his mouth and said in a very low voice, almost a whisper: “I… trusted you”

Masato bowed and yelled: “I AM VERY SORRY FOR MY ACTIONS!”

Otoya just stared at him for a moment and then he let himself fall to the ground. He sat there as the blue haired boy walked up to him. As he pulled out a hand to help him stand up again, the redhead slapped it away.

“Otoya!”

Hearing his name, he lifted his head and finally faced him. He looked like a small child that had lost his favorite toy: his eyes were watery, his mouth was pouting and he even had a little blush. This would’ve been cute had not been for the fact that Otoya was so upset that the only way to deal with his pain was to act like a little kid again.

Masato felt compelled to comfort him, just for his expression alone, so ignoring the fact that only seconds ago his friend had slapped his hand away, he got closer. As he did so though, he was quickly reminded of how much of a bad idea it was: in the blink of an eye, all innocence Otoya was showing faded and was quickly replaced by a burning “I’m going to kill you” sort of anger. The redhead quickly got up and pushed his bandmate strongly against the wall.

The hit had been so strong and surprising that Masato’s lungs run out of air leaving him coughing as he tried to breathe. He fell to the ground without any resistance as Otoya stared at him from above. When the blue haired boy thought another hit was coming his way, he just heard the words: “I never want to see you again” That sentence actually hurt worse that any actual punch or kick would’ve, but he didn’t have any time to argue back. Right as he was gaining back his breath, his –perhaps no longer- friend quickly strutted away from him.

‘ _What have I done?’_ was the repeating question in Masato’s head as he watched his friend disappear into the distance.

 

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

Otoya was angry alright, but not angry enough to forget that Haruka had talked to Ren before Masato. The question that was haunting the redhead was: ‘ _If Masato, the shy nice guy tried to kiss her, why wouldn’t Ren have?’_ So with that in mind he started his rage search for his friend as all trust slipped away being replaced by a deep feeling of possession: ‘ _Haruka is MINE! How can they not get this!?’_ he kept thinking.

As he stomped hard through the halls he bypassed a very cheery Natsuki: “Otoya!” he yelled happily, but yet again was completely ignored. Now he was truly intrigued about what the heck was going on that day, but he decided to wait it out and just observe from a distance, maybe he could ask Haruka later.

When he got to the training room of the building, he found both Syo and Ren training there. Unfortunately for the short blond boy, he was about to presence yet another confrontation between his friends (and if the last one was anything to go by for, he might get hurt again).

“Ren!” the readhead yelled angrily to call his attention.

“Oh, Ikki! What brings you to the ‘gym’?” he asked oblivious to the other’s emotions.

Otoya ignored his question as he quickly walked up to the long haired boy. When he got close enough to him, he grabbed his shirt and pulled him up so that they could face each other.

“Wow wow, calm down Ikki! What the heck are you doing?” Ren asked as he tried to push the other one away.

The redhead ignored him once again and in a furious tone, asked: “Did you try to kiss Haruka? Yes or no?”

“Where is this coming from? Let go of me!” Ren was quite surprised at the strength his friend was showing, as much as he tried to push him away, he just couldn’t.

“ANSWER ME!” he yelled.

“Hey, Otoya, calm down dude, you’re hurting him!” Syo stepped in.

He just looked at the blond boy with a threatening stare for a moment and then went back to face the current victim of his wrath.

“Okay okay! Yes, I did! What is it to you? You’re already dating her and I didn’t actually kiss her! How much do you want?” answered Ren angrily.

“WHEN?! WHEN DID YOU TRY TO KISS HER?!”

“Eh? Does it matter? Back when she came up to talk to me about her relationship with you, why?”

Hearing this, Otoya let go of Ren and strongly pushed him to the ground making him fall over the training equipment and getting him quite injured in the process.

“Are you crazy? Otoya, what the hell is going on?!” Syo snapped.

“It’s none of your business!” then he laid his eyes back on Ren (who was clutching his chest in pain) and said threateningly: “You better stay away from Haruka if you want to live” and with that he ran off.

When he was out of sight, Syo reached his hand to Ren asking: “Are you okay? Can you stand up? Do you want me to call a doctor? Can you move?”

Ren coughed a little as he clutched himself tighter and replied: “I’ll live, help me out here”

As he slowly got up, he leaned his weight on Syo and just like that they walked towards the infirmary.


	19. Chapter 19

Haruka suddenly woke up jumping up in her bed. ‘ _It was just a nightmare’_ she thought relieved. As she catched her breath she looked down next to her: it seemed that somehow Otoya had fallen asleep at the other side of the bed. ‘ _How weird! I thought he was right next to me’_ she thought.

In that moment someone knocked harshly on her door so she quickly got up and walked towards it. As she opened it she was surprised to find an angry looking Syo staring back at her.

“Where’s Otoya?” he asked as he sighed.

“Eh? He’s right inside, why?”

“No reason, can I come in?”

She moved to let him in and closed the door just as he got inside. When the blond boy found Otoya sleeping on the bed he looked back at Haruka and said: “How long has he been here?”

“… I don’t know, I was sleeping”

“Oh… I see…”

“Are you going to tell me what happened?”

“… Yeah, sure, why not?” he said as the redhead rolled on the bed. Seeing as he didn’t seem to have awoken, Syo added: “Why don’t we talk outside?”

“Okay…”

The short boy didn’t stop walking right outside her room; he kept walking all the way over to the living room at a fast pace making it harder for her to keep up.

When they arrived, Haruka was surprised to find every member of Starish plus Ringo, Ryuuya and Reiji waiting.

“What is going on?” she asked confused.

“You didn’t tell her?” asked Reiji looking at Syo.

“Tell me what? What is going on?”

The senpai stood up and walking towards her, he said: “Otoyan had a… some issues today”

“Eh? What do you mean?” she scanned the room for answers but all she got was a bunch of guys avoiding her eyes which made her even more worried than she already was.

“He had a bit of a confrontation with both Ren-chan and Masa-chan” seeing her confusion, he quickly added: “Let’s say that he physically assaulted them”

She stared blankly at the sweet senpai as she slowly grasped all the new information. She was about to ask what he meant exactly: had he punched them or something like that? But looking at Masato she noticed nothing new to his appearance and Ren didn’t look much worse than he did before. So with that in mind, she connected the pieces of her little puzzle: the last thing she told him was how upset she was because of her discussion with the blue haired boy… maybe he also confronted Ren since she had talked to him before… But why would he react in such a violent way?

Interrupting her line of thought, Masato said: “He had every right to do it”

This triggered the discussion that they seemed to be having even before she walked into the room.

“Are you kidding? He frickin’ pushed me against those frickin’ machines! If my chest hurt before you have no idea how it feels now!” Ren snapped.

“Well yeah, but it could’ve been worse, and you did try to kiss her…” said Cecil.

“YOU ARE NOT THE ONE TO TALK, YOU MONKEY BOY! YOU TRY TO KISS HER EVERY CHANCE YOU GET!” yelled Ren.

“Well, so do you!” Cecil replied.

“Boys boys!” Ringo stood up in between them. “This isn’t about who’s right or who’s wrong, this is about the fact that it is not okay to hit people, can we actually agree on this?”

The boys nodded in agreement as Haruka stood mortified thinking: ‘ _This is because they tried to kiss me? Oh no…’_

Ryuuya walked up to Ringo and looking at the boys, he said: “This is completely ridiculous: this is the second time you physically fight with each other, it’s getting out of hand… I’m afraid you leave me no choice but cut you off of all luxuries until you learn to behave. This means no free cars, no baths longer than 5 minutes, no TV, no internet, no nothing you can think that can make you have fun”

“That’s not fair! We didn’t do anything!” Syo yelled.

“Yes! If someone needs to be punished, that’s Otoya!” jumped Cecil.

“Wow, aren’t you the nicest friends? It’s decided then, you’re all grounded, I’ll tell your little friend about the news when he dignifies us with his presence” Ringo said.

Suddenly they all turned to face Haruka snapping her out of her thoughts. As they did, the pink haired idol said: “You’re luckily out of the punishment Haru-chan, so you better not give them anything that I may consider a luxury or… I may ground you too”

“… Yes” she said in a weak voice.

“Now, the rest of you: scurry off! Your punishment begins tomorrow so you better enjoy your last moments of freedom”

As the room became almost empty, Haruka sat on one of the couches as Ringo joined her in it. Everyone else had walked outside.

“What is it, honey?”

She avoided his gaze and said: “This is just like my nightmare… In no time the only reason why Starish will still be together is to not hurt my feelings…”

“Oh, Haru-chan! You know that’s not true! They may have their fights, but like every good group of friends, they’ll manage”

She looked up at him and hopelessly said: “How can you be so sure?”

Ringo patted her head in a comforting manner and then replied: “I wouldn’t normally be, but I know these boys, they’ve been through so much, they started their careers together! That’s not something you can easily move past. I know now it seems like things keep getting worse and worse, but I can assure you that this storm will stop and next thing you know: a rainbow will come shining through. You just need to be patient, everything is too new right now and they’re learning how to adapt to the changes, it’s normal for this sort of things to happen” Haruka didn’t seem to brighten up at all as she heard her former teacher, so he added: “What did you say when Starish was formed? ‘I have a feeling I’ll never meet people as wonderful as them’? Was it not?”

“… So?” she asked in a whisper.

“So you have to hope, hope that they will figure things out, hope that they are the same guys that agreed to become a band even through their differences and their want to be your single idol. Hope is all you can do, so at least for now: don’t give up on it”

She looked him in the eyes and said: “I don’t think I’m strong enough…”

Before she even got to finish the sentence, he quickly wrapped his arms around her and said: “Nonsense, you are one of the strongest ladies I ever met, you’ll get through this and much more, I have faith in you”

“I don’t…”

Hearing that, he pulled away and grabbing her face as to look at her eyes, he said: “Haruka, you are the composer of Starish, you got all this way with your own determination, you learnt to read music sheets and write melodies in _one day_ for goodness sake! This is just a little stone in your shoe compared to that! And the best part is that you’re not alone this time, even through all their fights, you still have the boys, you have me and you even have Tomo-chan!”

“I… Thank you…” she replied as a smile slipped into her face.

“No need to thank me, honey. I’m just reminding you of what you already know. Now: go to your crazy boyfriend before he wakes up and decides to attack everyone again” he said jokingly.

“Ringo-san!”

“I’m joking, I’m joking” he said giggling.

Haruka nodded and got up deciding she needed to face the situation she found herself in.

As he watched her walk away, Ringo couldn’t help but think: ‘ _I really hope Shining knew what he was doing…’_

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

Reaching her bedroom, Haruka found Otoya still sleeping on her bed. So in order to wake him up: she made sure to close the door forcibly enough to make a loud noise.

Startled, he opened his eyes and quickly aimed them towards her.

“Oh… Haruka…” he said in a groggy voice.

“Yes, me… Do you care to explain me what happened?” she replied frustrated.

He moved to sit on the bed and looking at her confused, he asked: “What happened?”

“Ittoki Otoya-kun, don’t play the fool with me, the boys told me you confronted them”

“Oh… _that_ ”

“Yes, that! Do you have anything to say in your defense?”

He stared at her for a moment too long and said: “Why are you mad at me?”

“Why wouldn’t I be? You ‘physically assaulted’ them… whatever that means!”

“Yes! Because they hurt you! They made you cry and not only that; they also tried to force themselves upon you! Why aren’t you mad at _them_?!”

Hearing him say this made most of her anger disappear as all of her emotions centered on her worry for him. She walked towards him and without giving it a second thought: she sat on his lap. This flustered him to no end: he instantly blushed and avoided her gaze with all of his strength. But she needed him to look at her, so she embraced him by the neck and making him look at her in the process.

“Otoya-kun, are you okay?”

“Eh? Of course I am”

“Why are you so angry, then?”

“I already told you, I can’t stand them treating you that way…”

“Is that all there is to it? You are defending my ‘honor’?”

“…” he stayed quiet as he tried to move his head to avoid answering. But she held on to him and he didn’t want to hurt her, so he just stayed there and said: “I… I was angry in my own behalf too…”

“How so?”

“Well… Them making a move on you even though we’re officially dating made me feel… betrayed… I got really angry… furious actually, and I just… I couldn’t think properly… I’m sorry… I’m sorry if I caused you any trouble”

She grimaced and replied: “I’m perfectly okay, don’t worry about me, you should think about yourself… Thanks to you now everyone is grounded… Ryuuya-san decided to cut off any sort of luxury from every member of Starish until he thinks you’re acting properly again”

“Oh… If they didn’t hate me before, this surely did the trick…”

She nodded and then slowly leaned in to kiss him. This took him by surprise given that he thought she hated him, but she didn’t seem to notice as she moved one of her hands to grab his hair. Feeling her change of position he slightly kissed back and then pulled her away.

“Haruka… I can’t… I don’t… You… Did you forgive me already?”

“There is nothing to forgive, at least not for me… I understand why you did what you did… I’m not saying it was okay, violence is never the answer and I know that they regret having made a move on me and you should’ve listened to their side of the story before jumping to conclusions, but… As far as I know you didn’t do anything wrong to me…” he looked hopeful as he closed the space between them to meet her lips again, but before he could do so, she interrupted him by saying: “You need to talk to them, I’m serious”

As he opened his mouth to reply, someone else said: “Like hell, he does”

In the shock of the moment, Haruka stood up and moved away from her boyfriend as they both turned towards the door.

“Syo-kun…”

“Yo, Otoya: What the hell is wrong with you?”

He stayed quiet for a moment and then looking at the blond boy straight in the eyes, he said: “Just answer me one question and I’ll tell you everything you want to know… If the chance so presented itself: Would you try to kiss my girlfriend?”

“Eh? Where did that come from?”

“Just… answer”

“Okay okay, gloomy, aren’t we? Ummm… I don’t know, I guess I could tell you one thing now, but were I in the situation it’s possible I would act differently than what I think now”

“… Then just tell me what you think you would do”

“Umm… So, as much as I would love to kiss her, I wouldn’t want to screw you up like that… Besides, it’s clear she wants to be with you… Unless she told me explicitly that: things with you aren’t working out and she wants to be with me, I wouldn’t really try anything”

As he finished, the couple sighed relieved.

“Now, why-” he started saying, but before he could even formulate his question, a superfast and clingy Otoya jumped over him hugging him as tightly as he could.

“O-Otoya, let go! You’re hurting me! Have you been hanging out with Natsuki recently?” he said as he tried to push his friend away.

Coming back to his senses, the redhead stepped backwards and said: “Sorry, sorry”

Syo dusted himself off and replied: “It’s okay, but now you have to tell me what happened”

“Ummm… Okay, long story short: both Masa and Ren tried to kiss Haruka… so I got a little too angry as you might expect”

“Yeah… I heard, but I didn’t expect you to go ballistics just because of that…”

As awkward silence settled in, Haruka stepped forward and said: “Syo-kun, how is everyone?”

“Umm… Pretty angry I guess… but mostly confused… except for Masato that is… he’s pretty depressed”

 “Why don’t you go talk to him now?” Haruka asked turning towards Otoya.

He sighed and replied: “I… Maybe tomorrow… I don’t think I can talk to him or Ren without attempting murder right now…”

“Otoya-kun!”

“What?!”

“Just… I don’t… Why are you reacting so… angrily now? You would normally just need a little apology and you would smile everything off… They already apologized to me and I’m sure they did to you too… It’s understandable, isn’t it? What would you have done if I had rejected you?”

“Well… First off, just like Syo said I would’ve stepped off and let you be in a relationship with whoever you had chosen… who would I be to get in the way of that? And secondly: I would’ve encouraged you to be with the person you love no matter how much it would hurt me… Because if it makes you happy… I can’t help but be happy too”

She walked closer to him and putting a hand to his face, she replied: “Well, aren’t you an excellent person? If I needed another reason to love you it would be this one…” As she finished, she stepped on her tiptoes to kiss him, but he stepped backwards as he got away from her.

The moment she was about to ask him what was going on, he nervously said (while avoiding her gaze): “… Now that we’re talking about this: Why?”

“Why?”

“Yes: Why do you love me? I mean… there are six other guys that are not only nice people but also talented and attractive… I guess… So… Why me? What makes me different than them?”

“Thanks dude, that was nice” Syo said before walking outside to give them some privacy.

As she looked at her boyfriend with tender eyes, she said: “I don’t think I could possibly tell you all the reasons, but at least I’ll try: You make me happy; when you smile I can’t help but follow; your voice inspires me to keep moving forward, to never give up; you are quite handsome yourself; you are my best friend; you taught me (among other things) to believe in myself; you are a wonderful and kindhearted human being; you help everyone, even if you don’t know them, with anything they might need; when I’m with you I feel like I can do anything, I’m safe… I can go on if you want, but I’m sure I would never end” she said smiling brightly.

He stared at her for a second and as tears filled his eyes, he smiled so much that a little giggle escaped his mouth right before he crushed his lips against hers as he held her face. As she kissed him back, he moved his arms towards her waist to pull her closer right as she put hers around his neck.

When tongue on tongue action began, they heard a soft knock on the door which they quickly ignored giving that they were much too focused on each other. The door was unlocked and open afterall, so whoever it was, he or she could wait.

Not too long after that, the knocking started once again. This time it was much louder, it seemed that the person was quite impatient by then. So even though they didn’t want to stop any time soon, they did need to breathe and this individual clearly wanted to speak to them, so they pulled away from each other.

As the redheads turned towards the door, they were greeted by the sight of both Masato and Ren. They didn’t look particularly angry about the whole ‘getting hit and then grounded’ situation, but they didn’t look very happy either.

“Hello Ikki, Little Lamb” he said nodding in their direction.

Looking at him, Otoya’s expression changed from blissfully happy to murderous angry in the blink of an eye. Noticing this, Ren quickly added: “Listen Ikki, we come in peace, we don’t want any trouble… just listen to us”

When the redhead opened his mouth to reject the idea, Haruka grabbed his hand making him look at her. She had an easy to read expression: it was a pleading one and judging by the context, she clearly was asking him to hear them out. So with her in mind, he replied: “Fine, but be short”

Ren cleared his throat and took a quick look at Masato before turning towards Otoya to speak.

“I will only speak for myself to avoid any type of confusion or misunderstanding... What I did, or try to do, was incredibly wrong, I know that, I realized it as The Little Lamb squinted her eyes standing away from me: I shouldn’t have made any sort of move on her regardless of that though, you are my friend and what I did was certainly a way of betrayal. I do not expect any sort of forgiveness, nor do I ask for it, I just want to at least maintain a cordial professional relationship”

As he finished, Otoya stared back at him and said: “Huh…” in a surprised manner.

“… I know it seems like it would be a lie, but I’m truly sorry about what I did, really” Ren said.

“Thank you, I really appreciate that” the redhead replied “I hope one day we can put all of this behind us”

Ren nodded in response and Masato stepped forward. The blue haired boy bowed yet again and said: “I will never be able to express my deep regret for my actions, but I am truly and irrevocably sorry for them. Sorry!”

“… Masa, you don’t have to be so formal” said Otoya.

Masato lifted his head slightly and replied: “Yes, I do. I’m really sorry, I mean it. I never intended to cause any sort of trouble, but I guess my body didn’t care much for logic. Nanami, Otoya… I’m sorry. You are both an important part of my life and I… I screwed up…”

“Hijirikawa-san…” said Haruka sadly.

“It’s true, I did… But just like Ren said: I don’t aim on maintaining our relationship as it was before, but I would no doubt make the effort to support a professional one”

“… It’s good to know” Otoya replied.

After he said that, awkward silence filled in the room as they looked at each other and as time went by: they looked at various spots in the place itself.

Realizing this was going nowhere, Ren spoke up: “So… Meet ya later Ikki, gotta change my bandages” and slowly walked away.

As he exited the room, Masato followed him, but not before saying: “I hope we can continue this conversation in the future…” as he looked at the redheads.


	20. Chapter 20

Tomochika had been rehearsing like crazy for those last two days. Her concert was on Tuesday and all the last minute pressure had started to kick in. The worst part though, was that: it wasn’t technically _her_ concert. You see, on that particular Tuesday the Utapri music festival would start and she had been assigned as the opening act. Needless to say she was a nervous wreck; her debut concert didn’t get her as much popularity as Starish’s did so she was quite surprised when Shining told her she had been chosen to represent their agency. Nonetheless, she was trying her best; she practiced every song in her repertoire, coordinated her moves with her backup dancers and even helped Yajima to compose a couple new songs (she wanted to cooperate writing more melodies just so he wouldn’t have to figure it out all on his own). But even with all that, she still didn’t feel good enough… Why did Shining choose her? Somehow asking herself that question gave her a little more confidence, afterall: ‘ _He must have a good reason, right? Maybe I’m better than I what I give myself credit for’_ she thought.

Tomo-chan was quite a strong lady. She didn’t let other people’s problems get to her and she always tried to help as much as she could. That’s why when her family started to have some problems back when she was in high school, she didn’t doubt for a second to quit it all together to help them. She wasn’t really a saint though, if something was bothering her about someone she would straight up tell that person off, put them on their place. But she usually got the most angry when people close to her were affected by something (or someone) since she really didn’t take any insult addressed towards her to heart and just laughed it off. When someone she cared about was upset because of something someone else did or said, her inner demon resurged and she would stop at nothing to make sure that whoever did that paid for their actions.

Her whole loyal and honest and straightforward personality was the thing that attracted people towards her the most. And that is why when the waters calmed down at her household, her family didn’t even hesitate to push her to apply for Saotome Academy.

Since she was little she had sang everything and for everyone, making her own “shows” at every family gathering and charging everyone so that they would listen to her. She was quite a charming young lady and all the compliments she got from her loved ones both in her acting and singing skills got her pumped up enough so that her self-esteem rised through the roof. So with that in mind, she auditioned for every school play that was ever held, and given how shy other kids at her age were: she got every part she wanted. Tomochika really loved being the center of attention and counter to popular belief she was quite a respectful student, making every teacher love her and care really deeply for her, so much so that her music teacher agreed to give her private lessons without charge so that she could one day accomplish her dreams of becoming a true idol.

But the redhead didn’t fully agree to return to her studies until she was positive that her family was in a stable position that enabled her to do so. When she did though, she started practicing like crazy once again, listening to a large variety of songs from different genres to test herself and see if she could identify the paces and the notes that she listened to.

By focusing on studying and dropping out of school, plus the time she spent with her family, she didn’t really have time to maintain any sort of friendship. This was why she had set herself to make a friend the minute she stepped inside of the academy. And sure enough, right on the examination hall, she met Haruka.

“Haruka…” Tomochika said out loud to no one in particular as her thoughts drove her to worry about her best friend. All the conflict that had been going on with Starish and her friend dating a certain Smilieface was really distressing her as she reflected over and over again if there was something she could do to help… But she needed help too, all her rehearsing and nervousness on the concert were almost too much too handle on her own, but she didn’t want to give Haruka more problems than the ones she already had…  There was also Ringo, but he didn’t have much free time with the work and all… And neither had she, so… She was back to square one.

‘ _I really need to make more friends…’_ she thought. Just as she did, her phone started ringing. Checking her caller ID she saw that it was a number she couldn’t recognize, but she picked up either way. This, of course, was after thinking: ‘ _I really need to practice more… I’m spacing out too much!’_

“Hello?” she answered hesitantly.

“Well, good afternoon, my lovely ruby-eyed princess” replied a velvety soft voice resembling a certain Casanova…

“Jinguji?! How the heck did _you_ get my number?”

“Oh please, my lady, there is no need to fret, but a gentleman never reveals his secrets”

She was about to say: “ _Gentleman? Please”_ in a very sarcastic tone, but she thought better of it: ‘ _Why do I get so mad at this guy? I should have the upper hand… I mean, he’s hot and all… Maybe…’_ And instead she replied: “Oh, okay? Then would you be so kind to tell me the reason of this call?”

“Do I really need a reason apart from wanting to hear the lovely sound of your voice?”

She hated herself for almost giggling like a little girl at that, but she pulled herself together and said: “Is that really the best you can come up with?” She didn’t really want to be hurtful, but the guy was just being too ridiculous for her taste and by what she knew: he was in love with her best friend and she didn’t want to be his rebound.

“Ouch, so cold” he said faking a sad tone.

She didn’t really buy it, but she still felt sorry, so she replied: “I’m sorry, but I’m really busy right now, would you please tell me what you want so I can go back to work?”

“… Are you free for dinner?”

“Eh? Are you asking me out?”

He smiled so much that as he replied she could hear his cockiness through the phone: “Would you want me to?”

She scoffed and said: “In your dreams”

To which he replied: “Oh, you don’t need to worry about that… Anyways, I’ll cut to the point: I need to talk to you in private and I believe the only way I can do that is through some sort of… date, yes”

“So you _are_ asking me out” she said (and against her better thinking) smiling like an idiot in the process.

Before replying he stayed silent for a little bit too long and then firmly said: “Yes. I’ll pick you up at 8, be ready”

“… How do you know where I am? Shouldn’t I tell you?”

“Oh, believe me, there’s no need” and with that, he hanged up.

Listening to the beeping tone that signalizes the end of a call, she realized what had just happened, so after cursing inwardly for a moment, she looked at the clock on the wall and confirmed her worst fears: “IT’S SEVEN FRICKIN’ THIRTY?!” she yelled. She took out her pocket mirror and noticed that she was still sweaty from rehearsal, so she quickly ran upstairs to her room to take a bath, change her clothes and put on make-up faster than she ever did before.

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

Approximately thirty minutes later, Tomo-chan was finishing up the final touches on her make-up. She was really glad that she had an “emergency date” attire just in case this sort of situation happened ‘cuz otherwise she’d have been doomed. Why did she have that, you ask? It was simply because she was quite fond of reading idol magazines… for research, _of course_ … And one day she came upon the list of “Ten things you should have in case of an emergency” The list was quite useful actually, the other nine things involved having a fire extinguisher and the like, but… that one point in the list was so ridiculous she couldn’t help herself and she just… she did it: One not so special day she walked up to her wardrobe and picked up a couple of outfits, _just in case_ , a formal one and a casual one… Now, she didn’t want her… _friend_? Was he her friend? She hadn’t really talked to him much, but she decided to use the “Any friends of Haruka are friends of mine” rule. So with that in mind, she chose the casual attire to avoid any sort of confusion on his part. Because yes, he had asked her on a date, but partly the reason she said yes was just because she wanted to get out of the house and the other part… she really wanted to find out how things had been with Haruka for the last couple of days. Her friend was really nice and all, but sometimes she forgot to let her in on her life’s happenings. Usually when Ringo wasn’t around to share the gossips with her, she didn’t find anything out until it was really late. And this one was one of those times. Tomo-chan didn’t want to lose her friend, but with all the working and living apart from each other, her fear was becoming more of a reality and she couldn’t let that happen. So she would interrogate the heck out of Ren and after her concert she would hang out like crazy with Haruka. Afterall: lately the master course had been quite light for her.

Suddenly she heard her doorbell ring. So instantly, she checked her watch: 8:15 pm. ‘ _I can’t believe it! The bastard is late!’_ she thought. Putting her shoes on, she walked towards the door and opened it without checking. Just as she thought, on the other side stood a suited Ren with a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a single red rose on the other.

He bowed and offered her the rose as he said: “I’m sorry for the delay, my lady”

She smacked the flower out of his hand and replied: “It’s fine” But seeing as he still had the bouquet, she stood on her doorway at a loss for words. ‘ _Is he going to offer it to me? Is it for someone else?’_ she thought.

When he noticed she was looking at his right hand, he said: “Ah, of course. No rose is enough for such a lovely lady. Here, you can have all of them” and handed her the flowers.

She carefully took them with an easy-to-read expression that could be quickly translated to: “ _Are you kidding me?”_ and ran back inside to put them in a vase.

 Before he could put one leg inside of her house though, she ran towards him fast as lightening and pushed him outside closing the door behind her.

“So… who do you live with?” Ren asked suddenly.

“Eh? Why do you ask?”

“I’m curious… It _is_ a really big house, I’m sure it has more than three rooms”

“Yeah, it does… I live with my composer and a couple of senpais, just so you know”

“Oh… I see” he said staring at his shoes awkwardly. Seconds later, he remembered why he was there so offering his arm for her to hold, he said: “My lady, your carriage awaits”

Even though she wanted to walk past him to the car and ignore his “ _proposition”_ she thought it would be quite rude to leave him hanging like that, so she just slipped her arm in his and together they got to the car. As they reached it, a couple of uniformed men opened the door for them.

Once inside, Tomochika couldn’t help but ask: “Are they your servants?”

Startled by the sudden question, he replied: “Oh, yes… I guess you could say that”

The ride felt like the longest thing ever, but it was quite smooth, so much so that she couldn’t tell when the car was stopping and when it was actually moving. But as she felt a certain emptiness from the soft driving of the car and the comfortable seats, she started thinking about a thousand questions like: ‘ _Why did he ask me out? Isn’t he in love with Haruka? What does he want? Where are we going? Does he want to be with me? What the heck is going on? Would I be able to ask him my questions? Should I say something? What is he looking at?’_ As she asked herself the last one, she noticed that he was staring at his cellphone screen, but she couldn’t see what he was looking at… She was too far from him… Talking about that: If he wanted to be in a romantic date with her then why were they sitting at opposite sides of the car? This clearly confirmed her “ _he loves Haruka”_ theory. But she still didn’t have a clue as to why he had asked her out…

Snapping her out of her thoughts, he suddenly looked up from his phone and straight into her eyes and said: “Is there anything bothering you, my princess?”

“Eh? I…” she was so surprised that she forgot everything she wanted to ask and instead she just looked down at her hands intertwined in her lap and stayed silent. Unfortunately for her, he could feel her discomfort so he quickly slid through the seats until he was as close to her as he could. Feeling the warmth of his body next to her, she lifted her head just in time for him to pull her chin up as if he was about to kiss her. She was so shocked she pushed him away as strong as she could with both hands making him fall to the floor of the car as he clutched his chest in pain.

Realizing what she had done, ‘ _Holy…! I forgot he was hurt!’_ she kneeled down next to him and helped him sit back on the comfortable leather. “Oh my God! I am so so so sorry! You… You really surprised me there and I just… It was my natural reaction; I didn’t mean to hurt you!”

He was still clinging to his chest, but he took the effort to move one hand from it and put it as a sign of “ _stop”_ before saying through clenched teeth: “I… It’s okay… It’s not your fault”

 

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

After much more heavy breathing and the most awkward silence of their lives, the couple arrived to their destination. Ren seemed to be in much better shape by then, so he escorted Tomo-chan inside the building.

As they sat at their table, and he moved her chair to help her sit properly, she couldn’t help but say: “This is a _really_ expensive place!”

“It is, my lady”

With that, he brought her attention back to himself. Her previous questions started popping again and this time she wasn’t going to let them go, so she took a deep breath and asked: “Why did you wanted to see me?”

“I could give you thousands of flirtatious answers, but I really lost all patience. I’ll cut to the point: I need your help”

“Eh? Why do you need my help?”

“Well, I am sure you are aware of your friend’s relationship with a certain member of Starish and I’m not going to ask you to break them up or anything, don’t get me wrong. But this situation has made an impact in our group dynamic like no other thing could, and to fix that: I need you to help me”

She stared at him confused and then said: “I still don’t understand… what could I possibly do?”

“… How shall I put this? Ummm… You see, as far as I know every member of Starish is either in love or has a gigantic crush on the poor Little Lamb. And that is the heart of the problem, how could we possibly not fight when we are all interested in the same girl? Especially now that said girl chose one of us… Do you get where I’m going with this?”

Tomochika poured herself some water and as she drank from her glass, not even once she averted her gaze from his. When she finished she cleared her throat and replied: “So… Let me get this straight, you want me to make you all fall in love with me?”

“Exactly”

“Are you crazy?! Did you come up with this yourself? I don’t know what you think, but Haruka told me that her dating Otoya was an exception Shining made. I can’t date anyone and-” She was raising her voice more and more, but as she mentioned dating, Ren cut her off.

“Now now, nobody mentioned anything about dating. I just need you to take their minds of the Little Lamb. Afterall, they’ve never been heartbroken before”

“… Then what do you expect me to do?”

“It’s simple, you just need hang around our dormitories more often, flirt a little (smoothly, of course; we don’t want them to realize what’s going on), compliment them on stuff they do… That sort of thing”

“And you think it’ll work?”

“Of course it will, they like you already and are pretty desperate to get over the heartbreak (at least some of them are)”

“Huh… And what about you?”

“What about me?”

“Do you want me to make you fall in love with me, too?”

“Oh, no… Honey, I don’t need help to move on, believe me, this is not my first time”

“Sorry to hear that”

“No, it’s okay, life happens”

After that, they stayed in silence. When the waiter arrived, they picked their food without even looking at each other.

The dishes only took fifteen minutes to arrive, but they didn’t make small talk during that time, it seemed as if everything they could talk about had been already said.

As they ate, Tomochika peeked now and then to see if he was okay. She had stayed silent for fear of hurting him, afterall, she had mostly done that all night… both physically and mentally. But he wasn’t paying her any sort of attention; he was much more focused in his thoughts. This made her even more intrigued. So when she finished her meal, she asked: “Are you okay?”

He was taken aback at the question, but quickly regained his cool and said: “Of course I am, why wouldn’t I?”

“Well… I don’t know… I just found it weird you didn’t flirt with the waitress that brought the champagne and that you haven’t said anything much all night”

He intertwined his fingers on the table, resting his elbows at the sides of his empty plate so that his arms would make an angle that would let him both lay his head on his hands and stare at her intently. This made her instantly nervous which he found amusing enough so that he said: “My dear, I know you may have had the wrong impression when I asked you on a ‘date’ but I arranged this meeting in a complete business fashion. I am not interested in you, at least not romantically. So you don’t need to worry about me, I am perfectly stable”

She was left so shocked by his statement; she forgot to close her mouth and just stared at him with a confused look on her face. By the time she recovered though, she replied: “Is it because you can’t get over Haruka?”

He sighed and said: “No, I’m fine… Let’s just order dessert and get the hell out of here”

“Why are you in such a hurry all of the sudden?”

“I’m not…” he sighed and then continued: “I believe we already said everything that needed to be spoken, so there is no need to waste more time in silence”

“Huh…” she said in a surprising manner, instantly calling his attention.

“What?”

“No, nothing…” she replied smirking.

He grunted and said: “You know what? I don’t have time for this” Having said this, he proceeded to call over the waiter. When the man in question arrived, Ren handled him a large quantity of bills, and winking, he said: “Keep the change” After that, he got up without even looking at Tomochika and walked rapidly outside.

What he didn’t notice was her running behind him. But when his “ _servants_ ” opened the door to his car (which apparently had stayed there all dinner long or something) he didn’t doubt for a second to stand to the side just so she could get in first. This dubbed the question ‘ _did he know I was here? I thought I didn’t even make a sound…’_ coming from his date.

When they were both inside the vehicle, Tomochika asked: “You know I didn’t say I’m gonna do it, right?”

Hearing that, he turned towards her and with a blank expression, replied: “Oh, please. Like you would want to miss the chance of making five handsome fellas fall head over heels for you”

This struck a chord with her, so angrily, she said: “I have a life, you know. I don’t need ‘ _five handsome fellas’_ falling for me! Besides, the rule states that I can’t fall in love and I don’t want to get expelled, I’m pretty happy living my dream here. Is it really that hard to get?”

“Well, you may not _need_ it, but you sure as hell want it. And who cares about the rules, do you really think they are gonna interrogate you about whether you are in love with someone or not? Please”

“I care! I don’t give a damn what you think, but I’m not taking any risks in this. And you know what? This ridiculous idea you have? It’s not gonna happen”

“Oh, yeah? And why is that?” he replied cockily.

“Are you even listening to me? I’m not gonna do it!”

“Indeed, I heard you, but I really think you are a terrible liar. Give me an actual reason and we’ll go our separate ways”

“Wha- I… I hate you” she said getting more upset every second that passed. She moved closer to him and pulling him by his tie so that they would be face to face, she added in a bitter tone: “Read my lips: I am not one of your servants, and I’m not as nice as Haruka. I won’t try not to hurt your feelings. So listen well, pretty boy: I. Am. Not. Doing. It. Got it?”

His eyes sparkled with mischief as he heard her little speech, but as he replied: “Loud and clear” Tomochika felt the need to let go of his tie and jump out of the –possibly- moving car. And just as she feared, the moment he stopped talking, his moved his hands in a certain way so that she couldn’t move from her place, and next thing she knew: his lips were tightly pressed against hers.


	21. Chapter 21

Before any sort of movement on her part, Tomochika thought about it for a moment: ‘ _WHAT THE HELL? GET OFF ME, YOU DOUCHEBAG! Nonono, take a deep breath… HOW CAN I WHEN HIS MOUTH IS OVER MINE? YOU BETTER NOT TRY TO GET SOME TONGUE ACTION ‘CUZ I’LL CUT IT WITH A SWORD! Nononono, think clearly: W.W.H.D. (Otherwise known as: What would Haruka do?) Okay, think: If you push him away, you may as well kill him, how much pain on the chest can this guy get? But on the other side: GET THE HELL OFF ME! Okay, no time to be rational, it’s been at least 10 seconds now, you have better enjoyed them, ‘cuz those were the last ten seconds of your life’_ When she made up her mind, she put her hands on his face and pushed him away from her.

Even though they weren’t kissing anymore, the fact that he was still holding on to her kept them quite close. The little distance became quite awkward to handle and giving that he wasn’t opening his eyes, she just felt the need to speak: “Why did you do that?” She intended it to sound angry, just like she felt. But instead it sounded sad, pitiful even, as if she thought he was a pathetic little boy for hoping like that. Of course, she didn’t, but she was really taken aback by her own tone.

What happened next was more of a shock than any way of talking she could’ve had: Ren opened his eyes, and in them she saw tears. He was truly crying. Silently, granted, but crying still. She felt a sort of maternal instinct to comfort him, but decided against it: afterall, he was in the wrong there.

He composed himself quite quickly actually. It took no longer than a couple of minutes and some tissues that –for some reason- he carried with himself and boom! He was back to his cool self again.

“Sorry for that. I lost myself a bit there. I trust you won’t mention that again”

“I… Yeah, sure… But first tell me: what was that about?”

“You don’t wanna know”

“Oh, believe me, I do”

He sighed and replied: “Okay… Ummm… Let’s see… The thing is: I don’t take rejection quite well…”  

“Is that so?”

“…” he stayed silent as he averted his gaze from her.

Feeling his discomfort, she said: “Come on, what is that supposed to mean? Do you mean you can’t take _me_ rejecting you? Or is this about Haruka again?”

“Does it matter?” he asked lifting his head. Upon seeing the look in her eyes though, he continued: “Oh, I see: You’re jealous. That’s it, isn’t it? You can’t take me being into the Little Lamb instead of you?”

She scoffed and looking at him disappointedly, she replied: “You know what? I’m really trying to help you here; I don’t have time for your petty little games. If this is all you wanted from me then please tell your slow driver to get me the heck to my house”

“Wow wow, calm down honey-” he started saying but she cut him off.

“Don’t you dare ‘honey’ me! I’m not helping you in your ridiculous plan and I am _not_ going to give in to your horrible flirting”

When she finished talking she noticed that he truly looked hurt by what she had said, but she talked herself off of apologizing: he needed a reality check, right? But with all the awkwardness that the discussion had settled in, they stayed silent for the rest of the ride. So as the car parked close to her home, she just nodded in his direction and moved towards the door.

What she didn’t expect though, was him grabbing her arm to stop her from getting off. They just stayed like that for a while, nobody talking, to the point the she was about to forcibly pull away and just leave.

But just as the thought crossed her mind, he said: “Wait, I need to tell you something…”

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

After all the drama of the day, Haruka just wanted to sleep, her nap had only made her more tired, and everything that happened after she woke up just exhausted her even further. So after the most awkward dinner ever, she walked quietly out of the kitchen (not before being reassured by Natsuki and Syo that they would clean the dishes) and straight back to her room.

She wasn’t even going to change her clothes, she just wanted to collapse on her bed. But it seemed a certain someone had other plans. When she jumped in her bed, she instantly fell to the floor while hearing a loud: “AAAH!” coming from under her sheets.

‘ _What the-?’_ she thought as she looked up from the floor. Suddenly, a handsome redhead removed the sheets from over him revealing himself to her.

“Otoya! What are you doing here?! Aren’t you supposed to be at the living room?”

“… Well… Clearly… I’m not”

“Yes, thank you, I can see that”

“Cool…”

“… Are you going to tell me why you’re on my bed?”

“Oh, that… Yeah… I was waiting for you, but I was too tired so I just… I fell asleep… And then you scared me so I kicked you off… Sorry”

She sighed and replied: “It’s okay, I’m not mad… But don’t do that again… And anyways… How did you get here? I blocked the door”

“… I know it’s creepy, but… the window was open”

“Oh my God! You did not get inside my room through the window!”

“Sorry…” he said as he looked sheepishly at her while biting his bottom lip. As time passed, a thought came to him and he didn’t even hesitate to share it with her: “Hey, you know… I’ve noticed that ever since we started dating you act more… motherly like?”

“Eh? What do you mean?”

“You know, you take care of me, get really angry when I do something stupid, call me by my full name… When I’m pretty sure before you would’ve just smiled and giggle at my idiocy…”

She put a hand on his leg in a somewhat comforting manner and replied: “I’ve always been like this… The thing is that now I trust you more… And in doing that, I’m showing you my true self, ‘cuz I feel _that_ comfortable around you”

He felt so moved by the statement that he couldn’t help but lean in and taking her face between his hands, place a soft kiss on her lips. As he pulled away, he looked her in the eyes and said: “I love you so much” to which she replied: “I love you too”

They stayed looking at each other for the longest time, in comfortable silence, not needing any sort of touch; just knowing that the other one was there was enough for them. And in that moment, they thought: _‘This is enough… Even if we have to fight to be together, to make everyone understand how happy this makes us… Being like this is enough… Loving each other like this… I can do this forever’_

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

**_Saturday_ **

The next morning when Haruka woke up, she smiled as she noticed the lovely company lying next to her on bed. She felt like no matter how much time passed, she could never get used to how angelic he looked when he slept, how the morning light made his features look even softer and how cute it was that he unconsciously leaned in closer to her as he smiled in his sleep. Even if they didn’t _sleep together_ , the literal sense of the expression was just enough for her… She really hoped it was enough for him too, but he didn’t seem to mind that much, teenage hormones aside. So she stayed next to him, content to be with someone that understood her, someone that shared interests with her and more importantly: values. Even if they weren’t dating, having met him was a really special thing for her. And because she didn’t want to lose herself in the drama, she treasured every smile he showed as he drifted off deeper into dream land and wished she would never forget those little moments.

“Mmm… love… Haru…” he mumbled in his sleep. She smiled in response and turned to kiss him in the forehead making him smile groggily. As she pulled away though, a single tear fell from her cheek, and she could feel the tight knot coming back to her throat. ‘ _Why am I crying?’_ she asked herself as she dried her eyes with the back of her hand. Moving away, as to not alert him of her state, she sat on the edge of the bed turning to look outside the window.

Only one answer came to her mind: ‘ _I don’t want this to end’_ and a whole lot of variations of the phrase. Haruka was quite used to people leaving her behind, moving on, while she stayed behind and wished she could do more… It was irrational to think he would do the same… Or to think that someone would force them to, but afterall: Why were they allowed to be together in the first place? Did Saotome finally take pity upon the poor composer? Or did he felt guilty for leaving his son all those years to fend for himself? Was that it? What if he grew tired of trying and just told them to break it off after all the trouble they were making Starish go through… ‘ _No, stop it! You have enough drama as it is, “the what if’s” are not important right now… or at any time for that matter’_ she thought. But even though she was convinced that that was true, she couldn’t shake the ugly feeling at the pit of her stomach telling her that something was not right. Before she could ponder about it any longer though, she heard a slight vibration coming from her nightstand: someone was calling her.

Picking up her phone, she noticed two things: 1) Tomo-chan was calling her, and 2) It was barely 6:30 am. But if her friend took the effort of calling at such an early hour, it must’ve been important… Or so she thought as she pressed the ‘answer’ button.

“He-Hello?” she said groggily.

“HARUKA?! ARE YOU AWAKE?! I NEED TO SEE YOU” the other one screamed over the speaker.

“Ugh… Tomo-chan, it’s six am, you should be sleeping…”

“NO TIME FOR SLEEP! THIS IS A LIFE OR DEATH SITUATION! I’LL BE AT THE DORMS IN ABOUT HALF AN HOUR AND YOU BETTER BE THERE TO RECEIVE ME! ‘KAY?!”

“Ugh… yeah yeah, sure…”

Seconds later the only thing she could hear was the beeping tone that indicated the end of a call. ‘ _How strange…’_ the pink-haired girl thought. But knowing her friend’s antics, she better do as she was asked, so she slowly slipped out of bed and walked silently to her closet to pick up some clothes.

When she finally found something that wasn’t too fresh nor too cold for the strange weather of the day, she put on one nice long-sleeved dress on (checking up to see if a certain someone was peeking), some comfortable socks and after softly kissing the sleeping beauty on his cheek, she walked out of her room.

 

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

By the time she got to the front door, she had crossed paths with a very quiet Natsuki and a –yet again- mean Tokiya. Haruka didn’t really know what to make of that, but she guessed they had a right to be angry… Afterall, they were grounded and besides: it was barely seven am.

What surprised her, though, was that she didn’t encounter Syo on her way downstairs. He would usually wake up before Natsuki to avoid a certain something from happening, but apparently not that day.

Nevertheless, she shook the bad thoughts that were pilling on her head and turned the key inside the lock just in time for Tomo-chan to ring the bell like a maniac. She quickly opened it and as she did, her friend jumped towards her, yelling nonsense.

“To-Tomo-chan! What is it?”

Hearing the question, the redhead let go of her and grabbing her by the shoulders while looking straight into her eyes, she said: “We need to talk, now”

“… We are talking”

“I mean privately… Nobody can listen to this… Let’s go to your room”

“Oh, yeah… Okay”

They started heading towards the direction of the girls dorms when Haruka came back to her senses and said: “Oh no, we can’t talk there!”

“What? Wh-” she cut herself off as she saw her friend’s expression so she just finished mouthing a: “Oh”

“Yeah…”

Awkward silence settled in at that, but Tomochika decided she wasn’t wasting any time, so she grabbed the pink-haired girl and walked her to the closest music room they could find. As they both got in, the redhead closed the door, locking it in the process to avoid any unwanted interruptions.

Tomo-chan gestured for her friend to take a seat, and shortly afterwards she cleared her throat. All this mystery was making Haruka’s curiosity grow more and more.

“So… I had a date last night”

“Oh my God! Really? Do I know the person you had it with?”

She looked down and in a low voice replied: “Yeah…”

“… Was it _that_ bad?”

“Worse”

“Oh… Tomo-chan, I’m so sorry”

“Nah, it’s okay… I wasn’t expecting anything… Actually, I didn’t even expect to have a date up until half an hour before we actually went out”

“Eh?”

“He called me on the phone… and for some stupid reason I said yes… Oh crap, I agreed to go out on a date with little to no timeframe between the invitation and the actual date! I must’ve sounded so desperate!” she said grabbing her hair.

“… Who is this person you went out with?”

“That’s the worst part… I went out with Ren”

“What?! Jinguji Ren? The member of Starish?”

“Yes, that one… How many Rens do we know?”

“… I just… Wow… I don’t…”

“Okay no, listen up… The horrible date is one thing, but what he actually told me at the end of said nightmare is why I couldn’t sleep all night and I had to ran all the way over here (not literally of course, I took a cab… But you get the hint!)”

“So… What did he tell you?”

“Well…”

 

**_Flashback ~_ **

 

“Wait, I need to tell you something…” Ren pleaded as he grabbed Tomochika’s arm.

“Let go of me! I don’t want to hear anything you have to say! You, my friend, know no boundaries and honestly, I’m disgusted by how much of a liar you are when you say you’re a gentleman, so let go of me or I’ll call the police!”

“Please, just give me a second… I know I don’t deserve it, and I’m really sorry for kissing you, I shouldn’t have done that. But, just… let me explain”

“I don’t-” she abruptly shut her mouth as she noticed the tears forming in his eyes, so with a loud grunt, she stopped struggling against his grip and said: “Fine. But be quick”

“Yes yes, of course”

He took a deep breath and when he felt like he cooled down enough, he started: “I wouldn’t really know where to start, but-” at that, she cut him off.

“Start from the beginning” she said in an angry tone.

He nodded silently in response and started again: “Truth is, as you may be aware already, Masato and I have been friends since we were little. So even though we distanced ourselves as we grew up and became competitors in the business, I still care deeply for him” he stopped there to collect his thoughts so she decided to chime in.

“I don’t understand… What does your relationship with Masato have to do with you kissing me? Are you telling me that you’re gay or something?”

“WHAT? No, hey… If I were to go gay for someone it certainly wouldn’t be for him”

“Yeah… sure”

“I AM VERY SERIOUS!”

“Of course”

He sighed inwardly while clenching his fists to avoid delving into that topic any further, he needed to finish his story afterall, and any more time wasted talking about it would only indicate that he cared.

He took a deep breath and going back on topic, he said: “Anyways, the thing is I started following him around, copying him. And it wasn’t really hard ‘cuz our tastes aren’t really that different (as hard to believe as it may be)… Not on everything of course. So… I found out that if he feels like he’s being challenged; he works even harder and… I tried to push him to give his best”

“I don’t… what do you mean?”

“I mean that every time he liked something, I would get it first, most of the time not because I liked it too, but because I wanted to see him grow stronger from it, to take the business seriously, to actually be a proper competitor of mine… Even if he hated me as a result”

“… That sounds really stupid, but I don’t… Are you telling me you’re not actually in love with Haruka?”

“… I really don’t know… I admit that I first I just hanged out with her to make him jealous ‘cuz I noticed the way he looked at her… But after I actually got to know her… I can’t tell, really… I think that in my own way… I do love her”

“Okay… So then… Why was all of this ‘date’ necessary? Did you really expect me to go along with it?”

“I… I really don’t know what I was thinking… I just called you acting upon impulse after talking to Ikki and… I wasn’t planning on you saying ‘yes’ so the rest of the events were… yeah…”

“So… What _were_ you planning on?”

“I… Like I said… I care about the introspective-blue-haired-dummy and after all of these confrontations with Ikki and the Little Lamb… I just feel like maybe he would’ve been with her had I not intervened the way I did…”

“So, you feel guilty about it?”

“Yes, of course… That’s why… I wanted you to help him move on, just him… He’s never been heartbroken before and he doesn’t trust many people with his feelings, especially after all the fighting going on lately… He surely can’t talk to any member of Starish right now…”

“You’re saying that you wanted me to _date_ him? Just him?”

“No no, not date him… Heck, you don’t even have to make him fall for you… But I can’t see him like this and… I think you’re a great friend”

“Are _we_ friends?”

“I highly doubt it after everything I did tonight”

“Yeah, darn right”

“… But I’ve seen the way you interact with Na-chan, Ikki and The Little Lamb… And all of your bashing me tonight only proves my point further”

“… You know he wouldn’t be happy if he found out that I became his friend because you asked”

“That’s why I need you to keep it a secret… So… Will you do it?”

“Honestly? After everything you did tonight I should just kick you in the nuts and walk away, but you know what? Hijirikawa is a nice guy, and you’re right, it sucks to see him sad”

“Is that a yes?”

“Yeah, but I’m only doing this for him, okay?”

“Yes yes, of course”

Right afterwards, they shook closing the deal and just as she was about to ask how long it would take to get to her house, the door of the car opened and at the distance she could spot her front door. She quickly got out of the vehicle mouthing a quick “goodbye” and practically ran inside the apartment. ‘ _Ugh, it’s finally over’_ she thought relieved.

 

**_End of flashback ~_ **


	22. Chapter 22

Haruka could only stare as her friend told her about the highly eventful evening she had. So when she finished talking, the pink haired girl just looked at her in disbelief while trying to make sense of it in her head.

Bringing her back to reality though, Tomo-chan asked: “So?”

“So what?”

“So… what do you think?”

“… I don’t know what to tell you… I didn’t… well… I knew that Jinguji-san and Hijirikawa-san had some history together and all… And I could tell that they were friends, but… I don’t know… Are you going to do it?”

“You mean befriend Blueberry?”

“Blue… what? What did you just call him?”

“Blueberry… You know… the fruit… I’m trying to think of a funny nickname… That’s all I’ve got for now… I know it’s horrible, I should do better”

“I… Why do you need to call him by a nickname?”

“To cheer things up, Haruka! Why else? I need to break the tension somehow…”

“Oh-kay… If you say so…”

“… But… Do you think this is a good idea?”

“Giving him weird nicknames?”

“No, dummy… I mean getting closer to him as a favor to stupid Handsomeface”

“… I’m not sure… But I do still feel guilty for all the trouble I put him through so… if you don’t mind… I would love it if you were there for him too”

“…” Tomochika stayed quiet then, pondering the possibilities. At the end she decided that even if Masato eventually found out about the reason she approached him in the first place, it was worth the risk to make someone else feel better for a while; even if he ended up hating her for it. So she finally said: “I’ll do it!”

 

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

Masato was cleaning up his room when he heard someone knocking on the door.

For once, that day Ren had actually gotten up earlier (or so he thought)… That or he didn’t go to sleep at all, but regardless of his situation and thankful that Ranmaru’s sleeping patterns kept him slumbering like a rock, he got up and resumed his morning cleaning ritual.

“It’s open!” he called out in response to the knocks.

Moments later, Tomochika walked in, moving in bee line towards him. Surprised at her presence, he said: “Oh, Shibuya-san… What brings you here?”

“I just wanted to… Is that Kurosaki Ranmaru snoring?” she interrupted herself as she noticed the senpai’s presence.

“Ah, yes… Don’t worry though, he sleeps like a rock, we can talk as loud as you want”

“Oh?”

“Yes?”

“Ah, I’m sorry… I just… could we talk somewhere more… private?”

“Oh, I’m sorry… I didn’t notice…”

“Nah, it’s okay… follow me” she said before walking towards the door once again. He followed not too far behind right after taking off his ‘cleaning uniform’.

Once they were in another room, Tomo-chan cleared her throat as to get some courage and that was when it hit her: ‘ _What the hell am I going to tell him?!’_

In her freak-out she didn’t realize that he was actually waiting for her to speak, so when he said: “Is there anything you needed?” She just lost it and blurted: “I really like you, you know” She thought back at what she had just said and just stood petrified, too embarrassed at her own stupidity to even move.

When she finally made a movement, though, she found something that genuinely surprised her: he was blushing like a madman while staring at her. “D-Did you really m-mean that?” he asked.

‘ _Oh crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap_ _what do I do?! I just… I made everything worse... crap… I gotta cover up… but if I reject him… it will all end there won’t it? Shut up Tomochika, you have to do it; you can’t lie to the poor thing’_ she thought desperately. Having decided on her approach, she started: “I actually-” she got cut off mid-sentence though.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t accept your feelings” he said bowing and interrupting her in the process. This only made her blush in embarrassment, but realizing that he had just saved her, she started laughing nervously and soon turned that laughter into an actual happy one. He was so confused at her response that he only stared. Well, he stared until she walked closer and started tickling him.

Ten minutes later they were both lying on the floor, faces hurting, eyes full of happy tears and bodies filled with a new recovered energy.

“That was fun” she said breathlessly.

“Mmm”

“Sorry I tickled you so much, but that was just too awkward… I don’t like you that way, I meant it as friends”

“Oh…” He sat up and looked at her. “Then I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions like that”

“Nah, it’s okay… It’s not like anyone wouldn’t love to imagine such a beautiful girl like myself having a crush on them!” she said proudly. He only smiled in response and got up extending his arm to help her up. She took it, and just like that, they were both face to face again.

“So…”

“So… Oh yes! I wanted to ask if you would mind us being… friendlier?”

He looked at her confused and asked: “Friendlier? What do you mean?”

“I mean… Up until now we’ve only been acquaintances, a friend of a friend… Would you mind us being… just friends?”

“Oh… I… That would be lovely, Shibuya-san”

“Call me Tomo-chan… Or Tomochika if you prefer it that way”

“Um… I don’t… err… Tomo…chika?”

“Yes?”

“No-nothing”

“Great! Let’s go out and do something, then!”

“Mmm… I’m afraid I can’t do that”

“Eh? Why?”

“We have been grounded because of our recent behavior”

“Grounded? So you can’t leave the dorms?”

“Precisely”

“Then we’ll have to find something to do on our own here, Blueberry”

“B-blue-berry? Eh?”

“It’s your new nickname. Like it? Don’t like it? Doesn’t matter, it’ll stick”

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

Haruka decided to make herself some breakfast instead of going back to bed, but as she made her way towards the kitchen, she remembered something: Otoya was still sleeping in her room. So instead of eating alone, and feeling confident in being able to make him some food before he woke up, she ran with new found excitement to prepare something delicious.

She had decided to make him a ‘mango chicken curry’. After all, she could make a big enough portion for two and it didn’t take longer than half an hour to prepare.

She prepared on one side the sauce (in a pan) and boiled the rice in a stewpot simultaneously. Once she got all the necessary ingredients for the dish she had been planning, she put some oil in a pan. She added the onions she had chopped and cooked them for five minutes. Then she added the red bell pepper and more oil, cooking the mix for a little while longer. She put curry powder, cumin and salt and as the smell of it all started rising, she added some ginger and garlic to make it even tastier. Finally, adding some water vinegar and the mangos, she sat down and waited for it all to come together.

Fifteen minutes down the line, she took all the mixed ingredients and put them in a blender to make it more even and saucy-like. Afterwards, she moved the sauce back in the pan and added the chicken. Haruka had finally finished the dish, but she had to wait for about ten minutes more, so she sat down on one of the kitchen chairs and let her mind wander off as the smell of food raised.

The pink haired girl thought herself really lucky that all she needed to make one of her favorite dishes was there. She found it quite peculiar given that the boys usually ate outside, but she figured maybe Masato had something to do with it… “Hijirikawa-san…” she said out loud without even realizing it.

“Yes?” he answered back bringing her to reality once again.

“Ah! Hijirikawa-san! What are you doing here?”

“… Forgive me if I scared you, Nanami… But I got hungry and… I couldn’t help walking in with that wonderful smell… What are you cooking?”

“Oh… I… It’s okay… I’m making ‘mango chicken curry’… it’s an Indian recipe… Tomo-chan taught it to me”

“Interesting… I’m going to go on a limb and guess that it contains mango, chicken, and curry?”

“Among other things, yes” she replied smiling. He smiled back and opened his mouth to say something else, but his stomach growled instead.

“Oh, God… I’m so sorry”

“No, don’t be. I have enough for you to eat if you want?”

“Really? But I don’t want to bother you…”

“Well, Hijirikawa-san… I thought you wouldn’t talk to me anymore, but here we are. So, I can assure you, you are not bothering me in the slightest. In fact, I’m really glad you’re here. I can finally give you back some food in exchange for all you’ve been cooking for me lately”

“… It’s no problem really… And I… I guess what Ittoki did the other day made me… more aware of the fact that maybe I can actually control myself if I keep in mind that I might get murdered if I don’t”  

“He wouldn’t kill you”

“You weren’t there” He said. She opened her mouth to protest, but the timer went off right then, so she hurried towards the oven and served the dish on three different plates. She turned after she finished and realized that Masato was incredibly close to her, _too close_. So she whispered: “No”

Instead of moving away, he took her by the chin, making her look up into his eyes, and said: “We’re even now” before letting go of her and making his way to take one of the plates. She just stood frozen in place as he walked outside the room. Meanwhile, Masato’s mind was exploding in confusion: ‘ _why the hell did I just do that?’_

 

**~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

Masato ran towards the living room in an attempt to avoid doing something even more stupid. He placed the plate and silverware over the table cloth, and sitting down, he started eating immediately, as fast as he could so that no one would find him and he could just rush back to his room unnoticed.

The redheaded woman sitting across from him on the table had other ideas, though. Tomochika cleared her throat to make her presence known and in return, he fell to the floor clumsily, fork and knife included.

“Woah, slow down, Blueberry”

Pulling himself up, he stared at her with as much anger as he could muster and said: “I told you not to call me that!”

“You actually didn’t, but that’s the least of your worries to be fair”

“I… You said you were too busy and that you had to leave! I even said ‘goodbye’! What are you still doing here?”

“Well… I was about to leave but then I smelled what you’re eating and I just had to stay a little longer”

In response to her statement, he gestured towards his plate as a way of offering her some of his food, but she politely rejected it with a shake of her hand. “That’s not why I stayed”

“Then… what do you want with this food?”

“Well, I taught Haruka how to cook that, you know… It looks good, I guess she did it better this time” she said nonchalantly.

“Oh yes, she told me you did… It’s curious though, she said it’s an Indian recipe? How did you learn it?”

“Blueberry, darling… You know, when you don’t go to school and you work at a newsstand you can’t avoid reading a ton of magazines to avoid death by extreme boredom”

“Oh my God, yes!”

“You understa- oh never mind” For a moment she had thought he could actually relate to her precarious situation, but it turned out that he was just really lovin’ the food. She decided she couldn’t take the ignorance anymore. She swiftly took the fork out if his hand and taking a chunk of the rice, chicken, and sauce, she tasted the dish. “Mmmm… She really outdid herself this time”

“… Can I have my fork back?”

“Not until you tell me why you insist on making advances on my friend” she said taking a complete serious turn in the conversation.

“… Ummm… I…” he mumbled.

“Now, I saw what you did in the kitchen so I’m not making this up. You got the worse out of Otoya and yet you just keep going, why?”

He looked down at his plate and stared at the food sadly. “I restrained myself for so long that I don’t think I can do it anymore… That’s why I told her I couldn’t talk or interact with her anymore… which is coincidentally why Ittoki hit me… not because he was jealous…”

“Wow wow wow! He hit you defending Haruka? I don’t know why I couldn’t figure it out before… He’s such an angel…” she said looking at the distance. “But back to you: I’m going to teach you how to stop acting like an animal in mating season”

“I… that’s quite… offensive”

“Offensive my ass, you have a lot to learn Blueberry, and I don’t have all day. Eat” she said finally handing him back his fork.

  **~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~~h~o~**

 

Closing the door to her room behind her, Haruka took both her plate and his towards her nightstand. The second the tray touched the nightstand, Otoya jumped up in the bed.

“Food!!” he said excitedly.

“Yes, I made you some. We can have breakfast together” she said smiling.

He was already drooling as he stared at the dishes when he asked: “What did you make?”

“Oh, you’ll see. Try it” He happily obliged and shortly afterwards, a ‘hmmmm’ sound expressing the deepest kind enjoyment he could muster was heard. She knew he would like it which is why she had used a larger plate for him, large enough to fit two portions, ‘cuz God knows, Otoya eats a lot. He was eating so fast though, that she couldn’t stop staring at him, forgetting about eating herself. So when he paused for a moment after drinking some water and cleansing his mouth with a napkin, she was surprised to hear him say: “Are you gonna eat, or what?” Haruka rapidly joined him and half an hour later there was no more food in sight.

“Woah, Haruka, you’re an excellent cook”

“Aw, thank you! I really do try my best… But this one was a simple dish”

“Simple? I can barely make pancakes; don’t pull yourself down, you just cooked heaven” he said as she noticed the curry still covering his mouth.

She giggled in response and leaned in to kiss the salsa away from his lips. He didn’t expect her to do that so when her tongue traced the outlines of his mouth, he froze in his place. She pulled away slightly and looking at his confused reaction, she felt even more confident to go on. So she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips against his. In response, he moved his hands towards her back and took her closer to him. Shortly afterwards though, he felt her smile against his lips which caused him to smile in return. He couldn’t help but give her one last little peck before pulling away and giggling like a schoolgirl. His laugh was pretty contagious as well so as fast as he started, she joined. They gave each other sweet little kisses as they giggled for a while, blushing and smiling all the way.

At one point, Haruka asked him: “You think you can help me clean the dishes again? I promise this time I won’t drop anything”

He leaned in again, and giving her another peck on the lips, he replied: “I would be honored”

Hearing his response, she took one of his hands in hers and squeezing it gently, she said: “You know, Cecil-san might be an actual prince, but to me you are the real deal… my prince of songs”

“Well, I’m glad you think that, because I would be nothing without you, my muse, and my princess” he said imitating Cecil’s voice.

“You’re a dork” she said giggling again.

“And you love me for it!” he said, giggling as well.

“I truly do” Every joking tone was replaced by the utter sweetness and seriousness of her statement and he couldn’t help but kiss her once again, making sure for it to last longer that time. He cupped her face with his free hand and slowly leaned in, watching as she closed her eyes in expectation, as her breathing softened, feeling both of their pulses rise by the touch of their skin. He wasn’t thinking about the fact that they were technically sitting on her bed or about the implications that that might have for other people, because for them, _kisses and laughter were enough_. So they both lingered for a moment as their faces were so close that their breaths mixed into one, the mango of the salsa tinting the taste of it. The softness of the bed and the warmth of their bodies made their senses sharpen as they noticed the dead silence of the morning and the loud wind at the outside making trees move and the windows vibrate. Haruka finally cut the space between them as Otoya’s open mouth welcomed her tongue to join his in a deep, sweet kiss.

They were so focused on each other that they didn’t notice when someone knocked on the door, nor when someone actually walked inside the room.

Ringo stared at what he thought as ‘ _this horny teenagers’_ and tapped his foot with impatience, loud enough for them to hear, but it seemed as if their ears were solely focused on their body sounds. So the teacher waited and waited. When Haruka’s hand wandered down her boyfriend’s shirt though, he just had to stop them; he wasn’t there for the show. He cleared his throat audibly and seeing as it didn’t work, he said out loud: “You two better cut the love making before it starts ‘cuz we have a lot of work to do and I’m not here to babysit you”

Hearing his voice, they both jumped away from each other, red covering every single part of their bodies as they looked down at the floor in embarrassment.

“Listen kids, I’m not here to ground you. You can do whatever you want with each other as long as you use protection and don’t bother anyone else… I can’t believe I just said that, you’re both underage… I just… Regardless, I’m here to inform you that since you are _already_ grounded darling Otoya I would love for you to join me and the rest of your bandmates on your first day of punishment”


End file.
